implementing global environmental policy at local level ... - ITC

IMPLEMENTING GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AT LOCAL LEVEL: COMMUNITY CARBON FORESTRY PERSPECTIVES IN CAMEROON

Peter Akong Minang June 2007

International Institute for Geo-information Science and Earth Observation, Enschede, The Netherlands

ITC dissertation number 144 ITC, P.O. Box 6, 7500 AA Enschede, The Netherlands

ISBN 978-90-6164-260-2 Cover designed by Andries Menning Printed by ITC Printing Department Copyright © 2007 Peter Akong Minang

IMPLEMENTING GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AT LOCAL LEVEL: COMMUNITY CARBON FORESTRY PERSPECTIVES IN CAMEROON

DISSERTATION

to obtain the doctor’s degree at the University of Twente, on the authority of the rector magnificus prof.dr. W.H.M. Zijm, on account of the decision of the graduation committee, to be publicly defended on Friday June 8, 2007 at 15:00 hrs

by Peter Akong Minang

born on September 30, 1970 in Kumba, Cameroon

This thesis is approved by Prof. dr. Hans Th.A. Bressers, promotor Dr. Michael K. McCall, assistant promotor Dr Margaret M. Skutsch, referent

Acknowledgements Much in research and writing depends on people and places. Several persons and institutions deserve gratitude for the tremendous support given to me during the challenging times of this PhD programme. I am very grateful for the scientific guidance of Prof. Hans Bressers, Dr Mike McCall and Dr Margaret Skutsch. Their commitment, patience and encouragement have been priceless. I feel privileged to have learnt so much from them within and outside this research. I will also like to extend special thanks to Prof Willem van den Toorn for his guidance and support during the early days of this research. I owe many thanks to Jeroen Verplanke, Dr Laurent Sedogo, Dr Martin Yemefack, Dr Said Mohammed and Mr Zufanyi ST Welang for the encouragement to embark on a doctorate programme; to Emile Dophiede, Dr Erik de Man, Niel Bird, Verina Ingram and Monica Kuffer for reviewing parts of this thesis; and to Rene Oyono, Dr Esteve Corbera, Dr Amougou Amathe, Samuel Mvondo, and Emmanuel Munakwa for sharing relevant information during this research. I am also grateful to members of the Kyoto Project team – Rupa Basnet, Bhaskar Singh Karki, Eliakimu Zahabu, Libasse Ba, Rupa Basnet, Dr Patrick van Laake, Dr Pushkin Phartiyal, Dr George Jambiya, Dr Pankash Tiwari, Prof. S.P. Singh, Eveline Trines, Michael Dutschke, for their valuable comments during our project sessions. Without the cooperation of the Tinto and Bimbia Bonadikombo communities I do not think this study would have seen the light of day. I will also like to specially acknowledge Hon Mrs Gwendolyne Burnley, HRH Chief Agbor-Echi Agbor Ndakaw and HRH Chief Ayuk-Ngie of Tinto Kerieh and Bessinghe respectively, Messrs Eyong Tanyi, Janvier Mondoa, Mulema Joseph, Alfred Che and Mor-Achankap Bakia. Without them the field work would not have been possible. I am indebted to the Directorate General for Development Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs- DGIS and International Institute for GeoInformation Science and Earth Observation- ITC, The Netherlands for providing the funding and facilities that enabled this study. Many thanks also go to CTA Wageningen and Giacomo Rambaldi for enabling sharing and discussions on parts of this research in different fora. I am thankful to Dr Martin Hale, Loes Colenbrander, Ard Kosters, Petra Weber, Bettine Geerdink, Theresa van den Boogaard, Marie-Chantal Metz, Ginie Gerrits, Wendy Stiksma, Helen Murad, Thea de Kluijver, Marion Pierik, Kim Velthuis, Bert Riekerk, Marga Koelen and Petry Mass-Prijs for their vital support during this research. Many thanks also to Ada Krooshoop of CSTM at the University of Twente. i

I will always remember the good moments with many friends at ITC and Enschede. A big thank you to, Dr Jamshid Farifteh, Dr Moses Azong, Dr Grace Nangendo, Dr Pravesh Debba, Dr Javier Morales, Jane Bemigisha, Roshanak Darvishzadeh, Kate Lance, Anthony Arko-Adjei, Emmanuel Owusu, Ningrui Du, Eric Masereka, Pieter Beck, Richard Onchaga, Atkilt Girma, Monica Lengoiboni, Nicky Knox, Graciela Peters, Farhang Sargordi, Bahman Farhadi, Wang Tiejun, Diana Chavarro and Tyas Basuki, Ulanbek Turdukulov, Trias Aditya and Sekhar Lukose Kuriakose with whom I exchanged experiences about doctoral research at different points. I am also grateful for the supportive discussions and friendship of Fred Paats, Jan de Ruiter, Sjaak Beerens, Jeroen Verplanke, Emile Dopheide, Chris Paresi, Dr Erik de Man, Dr Luc Boerboom, Dr Van der Zee, Dr Ali Sharifi, Dr David Rossiter, Dr Mark Zuidgeest and Liza Groenendijk that kept me moving. The Cameroonian Community in Enschede was also very supportive. To Courage, Alfred, Azise, Sylvester, Mireile, Boris and Pauline, I say thanks. I owe so much to my family and friends for the moral and material support and vital energy they provided during this research. These include my mother Lilian N Minang; brothers and sisters, George, Pauline, Mercy, Linda and Emmanuela Minang, Togho and Ndi Mukong, Tontu Micheal and Christian Anguh Yondo; friends, Daniel Agoons, Stella /Mbonteh Fonso, Hans Epale, Tamanjong Motuba, Benjamin Ayuk, Agborsangaya Valery, Epie Joseph, MorAchankap Bakia, Din Nku, Berthe and Martin Yemefack, Ernest Ngome, Leo Ngome and Jimmy Tchango. Hearty thanks to Mr/Mrs Tontu, Mr/Mrs Nkwi, Mr/Mrs Ngome, Mr/Mrs Welang, Mr/Mrs Ngome Ngome, Mr/Mrs Ngalame, Mr/Mrs Kwo and Mrs Yondoh for their support. Finally, I will like to thank my beloved wife Angella for her patience and all she has gone through during my absence throughout this research. Her love has been a formidable drive through these years. Let me apologise to those whose names I have inevitably not been able to mention. They have contributed insights and in many cases saved me from mistakes. You and those I mentioned above made this experience truly humbling for me. Thank you Grand Merci!!!

ii

Hartelijk Dank!!!

Muchas Gracias!!!

Kezong!!!

Table of Contents Acknowledgements...................................................................................................................... i Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................ iii List of figures................................................................................................................................ v List of tables................................................................................................................................. vi Acronyms....................................................................................................................................vii Chapter 1: Introduction.............................................................................................................. 1 1.1

Introduction......................................................................................................................2

1.2

Environmental Services from Forest Land Uses..........................................................2

1.3

Forests, Carbon and PES.................................................................................................3

1.4

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)...............................................................4

1.5

The Research Problem.....................................................................................................5

1.6

The conceptual framework.............................................................................................7

1.7

Research Questions .......................................................................................................10

1.8

Methods and Context....................................................................................................12

1.9

Structure of the thesis....................................................................................................19

Chapter 2: National Forest Policy as a Platform for Biosphere Carbon Management: The Case of Community Forestry in Cameroon .................................................................... 21 2.1

Introduction....................................................................................................................23

2.2

CDM Forestry Requirements and Forest Policy Assessment Framework .............25

2.3

An Outline of Community forestry Policy in Cameroon .........................................31

2.4

Methods ..........................................................................................................................36

2.5

Assessing Community Forestry Compatibility to CDM. .........................................37

2.6

Discussion.......................................................................................................................47

2.7

Conclusion......................................................................................................................50

Chapter 3: A data support infrastructure for Clean Development Mechanism forestry implementation: an inventory perspective from Cameroon................................................ 53 3.1

Introduction....................................................................................................................55

3.2

Methods and Context....................................................................................................56

3.3

CDM forestry project data requirements (demand analysis) ..................................58

3.4

Supply Analysis.............................................................................................................64

3.5

Conclusions ....................................................................................................................73

iii

Chapter 4: Community Capacity for Implementing Clean Development Mechanism Projects Within Community Forests in Cameroon................................................................ 79 4.1

Introduction....................................................................................................................81

4.2

CDM Requirements and Community Forestry .........................................................82

4.3

Community Capacity Assessment Framework .........................................................86

4.4

Methods and Context....................................................................................................89

4.5

Assessing Community Capacity for CDM project development ............................91

4.6

Conclusions and Practical Implications....................................................................102

Chapter 5: Local spatial knowledge and forest eligibility in the Clean Development Mechanism.................................................................................................................................107 5.1

Introduction..................................................................................................................109

5.2

Conceptual background .............................................................................................110

5.3

The study area and methods......................................................................................115

5.4

Results ...........................................................................................................................118

5.5

Discussion.....................................................................................................................124

5.6

Conclusions ..................................................................................................................126

Chapter 6: Participatory GIS as a vehicle for community carbon forestry governance..129 6.1

Introduction..................................................................................................................131

6.2

Clean Development Mechanism Forestry ................................................................131

6.3

Participatory GIS, good governance and CDM forestry ........................................134

6.4

Participatory GIS in community carbon forestry in Cameroon – a case study ...137

6.5

Emerging issues for “good governance” enhancement through participatory GIS ........................................................................................................147

6.6

Conclusions ..................................................................................................................152

Chapter 7: Multi-level governance conditions in Clean Development Mechanism forestry implementation: a synthesis .....................................................................................155 7.1

Introduction..................................................................................................................156

7.2

Cross-scale conditions for CDM forestry Implementation ....................................157

7.3

Global Level Implications...........................................................................................167

POSTSCRIPT: Shooting at the moving target that is CDM / Kyoto ..................................177 References ..................................................................................................................................181 Summary....................................................................................................................................197 Samenvatting.............................................................................................................................201 ITC Dissertation List.................................................................................................................205

iv

List of figures Figure 1.1 Conceptual Framework..............................................................................9 Figure 1.2 Enhanced Conceptual Framework .........................................................14 Figure 1.3 Map showing study area..........................................................................18 Figure 2.1 CDM project review and approval procedures in Cameroon.............46 Figure 3.1 Clean Development Mechanism Project Cycle .....................................59 Figure 3.2 Conceptual data model for CDM PDD preparation.............................62 Figure 4.1 Sociogram showing community forest actor relationships in both communities .......................................................................................................100 Figure 5.1 Local knowledge domains .....................................................................114 Figure 5.2 a & b Sketch maps of farm / forest frontiers for 1980 and 1990 ......119 Figure 5.3 GPS survey points of farm -forest frontiers for 1980 and 1990 .........120 Figure 5.4 a & b Land cover maps of 1980 and 1990.............................................123 Figure 5.5 a & b Overlay of PGIS points and land cover for 1980 and 1990......123 Figure 6.1 Good Governance criteria and indicators used in this study -Adapted from McCall and Minang (2005)......................................................................135 Figure 6.2 Participation intensities and purposes by activity in Bimbia PGIS ..143 Figure 6.3 Geo-information uses in the Bimbia PGIS process .............................146 Figure 6.4 Entitlements and forest rights regimes as seen by main stakeholders in Bimbia .............................................................................................................150

v

List of tables Table 2.1 Framework for national forest policy-CDM compatibility assessment ................................................................................................................................30 Table 2.2 Summary of forest types and conditions in Cameroon .........................33 Table 2.3 The likelihood of policy instrument application for CDM criteria in Cameroon under CIT ..........................................................................................48 Table 3.1 CDM Micro level data availability for Tinto and Bimbia Bonadikombo ................................................................................................................................65 Table 3.2 CDM meso and macro (National) level information availability.........67 Table 3.3 Summary of SWOT analysis of forest information infrastructure in Cameroon .............................................................................................................69 Table 4.1 CDM community capacity assessment framework................................87 Table 4.2 Summary descriptions of community forestry actors............................92 Table 4.3 Estimated income and expenditure of community forests (January December 2005)....................................................................................................93 Table 4.4 Projected carbon mitigation potential for community forests ..............94 Table 4.5 Summary of findings..................................................................................99 Table 5.1a & b Accuracy assessment of supervised classification of 1990 .........121 Table 5.2 Value added of PGIS use in Bimbia Bonadikombo..............................122 Table 6.1 Participatory GIS process in Bimbia Bonadikombo .............................140 Table 6.2 Participation (Legitimacy) .......................................................................142 Table 6.3 Legitimacy, ownership and empowerment ..........................................144 Table 6.4 Equity Indicators.......................................................................................147 Table 6.5 Meeting the geo-information needs .......................................................148 Table 7.1 Enabling conditions for CDM forestry implementation......................159

vi

Acronyms ANAFOR AR BBNRMC C CBD CDC CDM EB CDM CER CETELCAF CF CFA CFM CIT COP (CP) DNA DOE GEF GFW GIS ICRAF ILUF INC IPCC IRAD LULUCF MCBCC MDP MEA MINEP MINFOF MINRESI NGO NTFP PDD PES PGIS PIN PRA REDD SIGIF SWOT TCCF-CIG UNCCD UNEP

Agence Nationale d’Appui au Développement Forestier Afforestation and Reforestation Bimbia Bonadikombo Natural Resource Management Council Carbon Convention on Biological Diversity Cameroon Development Corporation Clean Development Mechanism Executive Board Clean Development Mechanism Certified Emission Reduction Centre de Télédétection et de la Cartographie Forestière Community Forest Communauté Financière Africaine or XAF Community Forest Management Contextual Interaction Theory Conference of Parties Designated National Authority Designated Operational Entity Global Environment Facility Global Forest Watch Geographic Information Systems World Agroforestry Centre Integrated Land Use Framework Institut National de Cartographie Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Institut de Recherche pour L’Agriculture et le Développement Land Use Land Use Change and Forestry Mount Cameroon Biodiversity and Conservation Centre Mécanisme pour le Développement Propre Multilateral Environmental Agreements Ministry of Environment and Nature Protection Ministry of Forests and Fauna Ministry of Scientific Research Non Governmental Organisation Non Timber Forest Products Project Design Document Payments for Environmental Services Participatory Geographic Information Systems Project Inception Note Participatory Rural Appraisal Reduced Emissions through Deforestation and Degradation Système de Gestion des Informations Forestière Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats Tinto Clan Community Forest Common Initiative Group United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification United Nations Environment Programme

UNFCCC

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

vii

viii

Chapter 1 Introduction

1

Introduction

1.1

Introduction

This study addresses the challenges and opportunities for implementing global environmental policy at the local level. It seeks to understand the dynamics of global, national, sub-national and landscape (project) level realities that will enable or inhibit the realization of multi-lateral environmental agreements. The Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol is examined as an example of global environmental policy, while community carbon forestry in Cameroon is used as a developing country context. The study presents a crossscale analysis from multiple dimensions including: forest policy (macro level); information management (macro-meso-micro levels); community capacity, local knowledge, and governance (at micro level). These dimensions constitute the various angles or lenses through which I examine the issues in the each of the ensuing chapters. Permit me to begin by introducing the underlying concepts, research problem, questions, context and methods of this study in this opening chapter.

1.2

Environmental Services from Forest Land Uses

Forests can provide environmental services including carbon sequestration, water protection, biodiversity protection and scenic beauty for which payments or compensation can be received. Payments for Environmental Services (PES) constitute part of an emerging paradigm in land use management in which land and natural resource users provide environmental services for some form of payment within specified/agreed conditions. Proponents of the PES paradigm argue that compensating land users for environmental services would give market reason for actors to consider such services in decision-making processes, thereby increasing chances of curbing deforestation and other environmental problems such as soil erosion, floods etc (Pagiola et al, 2005). The failure of current models such as Integrated Conservation and Development Projects and Sustainable Forest Management to provide sufficient incentives and motivation to stimulate conservation, reforestation and / or increase incomes of local populations has been used as supportive evidence (Zbinden and Lee, 2005). Another reason for payments relates to environmental justice in which industrialised / polluting countries compensate non-polluting countries for the effects of their pollution. The shift in paradigm means an extension from more tangible and traditional land /forest product benefits of wood (e.g. fire wood, timber) and non-wood (e.g. nuts, fodder, oils, medicine, etc) to marketing environmental service benefits (e.g. watershed protection, biodiversity conservation, carbon sequestration and scenic beauty). The introduction of services brings about changes in the objectives, kinds of actors, institutions, rules and interactions within land use management production systems. 2

Chapter 1

For example, automobile producing multi-nationals may contract carbon sequestration or emission reduction services from a group of forest owners and users in a tropical country to fulfil emission reduction targets or enhance their corporate image. A new set of willing service providers offering services to buyers will emerge as key actors of PES, often ushering in a new dynamic in which certification is required from an independent body. Wunder (2005) distinguishes three groups of PES types. A group characterised by the vehicle used to achieve the service. This could be area-based (i.e. land units contracted for scenic beauty or carbon management) or product-based (i.e. consumers pay a “green premium” for a certified product). The second group is distinguished by the nature of the buyer. For instance, Public schemes in which the state buys the environmental services or Private schemes in which private buyers negotiate directly with service providers. A third category can be identified by the resource or land use. This could involve use-restricting schemes wherein use caps are put to allow regeneration or asset-building schemes such as afforestation to restore a service. Wunder’s characterisation shows that PES systems are varied and can operate at different scales. Spatial units are relevant for determining the scale of watershed protection and scenic or landscape beauty service systems. Policy or political economy may well be relevant in determining the scale of carbon and biodiversity service systems. A combination of variables may better explain whether or not a service system extends beyond the landscape level through to a global market or service system. This study will focus on forest carbon sequestration services within the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol.

1.3

Forests, Carbon and PES

Forests have a tremendous capacity to cause as well as avoid and remove carbon emissions. Tropical deforestation alone accounts for 20% of greenhouse gas emissions (Chomitz, 2002a). On the other hand, forests have the capacity to act as sinks (the ability to absorb and hold carbon dioxide for long periods). The IPCC Third Assessment Report (IPCC, 2000) puts the total potential for avoiding or removing carbon emissions through aggressive forestry practice changes on 700 million ha of forest at about 60-80 billion tons or about 12-25% of the “business as usual” fossil fuel emissions over a period of 50 years. As a corollary, forests have been at the heart of strategies to mitigate increasing greenhouse gases in which carbon dioxide is the dominant component, occupying about 0.03% of atmospheric volume and increasing in concentration by 25% since pre-industrial times (IPCC, 2000). Bass et al. (2000) cite three forest

3

Introduction

related approaches that have been used in varied combinations within the strategy to reduce greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. These are, • • •

Halting or slowing down deforestation by preserving the current carbon reservoirs (Carbon conservation) Increasing vegetation cover through afforestation so that it can hold carbon for longer time (Carbon sequestration) Converting vegetation into timber products which store carbon or substitute bio-energy for fossil fuel so that less carbon is emitted into the atmosphere (Carbon substitution)

Ecosystem Marketplace (2006) estimates that about 745,000ha of land have been brought under carbon sequestration activities, yielding carbon offsets worth $84 million in the last ten years. Forest / land use based carbon sequestration projects accounted for about 4% of global carbon market worth ($11.75 billion) in 2005 (Lecoq and Capoor, 2005). An overview of some carbon sequestration projects can be found in Tipper et al. (2002), Kagi and Schoene (2005), Auckland et al (2002) and Jindal et al. (2006). Some carbon forestry projects come under global payments for environmental services such as the Joint Implementation (JI) and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) schemes within the Kyoto Protocol of the UNFCCC. Projects under these global schemes fall under the so-called "compliant" markets while all others fall under the “voluntary” market. Africa currently has 19 carbon sequestration projects in 16 countries on the continent, all of which fall under the voluntary market (Jindal et al. 2006). One reason for these projects not to be under the CDM is that, CDM conditions are too difficult. Only one out of about 30 CDM forestry projects has been approved to date. Kagi and Schoene (2005) provide an overview of the methodological problems with CDM forestry proposals. This study focuses on carbon forestry development within the Clean Development Mechanism as an example of a global PES policy.

1.4

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)

The CDM is one of three “flexible mechanisms” of the Kyoto Protocol designed to accomplish the objectives of the UNFCCC. It makes provision for investment by industrialised countries and industry in projects related to carbon emission reduction and carbon sequestration in developing countries. These projects should contribute to sustainable development in developing countries (i.e. NonAnnex 1 countries) while enabling developed countries (i.e. Annex 1 countries) to meet Kyoto emission reduction and quantified emission limitation targets (Art. 12.2 of the Kyoto Protocol).

4

Chapter 1

CDM projects are expected to meet a set of requirements prior to the issuance of certified emission reductions by the CDM Executive board. These requirements are articulated in the Kyoto Protocol and in subsequent decisions taken during the Conference and Meetings of Parties (mainly in Decisions 19/CP.9 and 14/CP.10 and the Marrakech Accords). These requirements can be summarised under the following categories: eligibility, additionality, acceptability, externalities and certification. Eligibility specifies that only afforestation and reforestation activities qualify under current rules. Afforestation would mean planting trees on land that has not been forest for a period of at least 50 years (i.e. according to the host country definition of forest). Reforestation would mean planting trees on land that was not forest on 31 December 1989. Additionality means carbon mitigation effects “with project” must be additional to what would have happened “without project”. Acceptability stipulates that all projects must contribute to sustainable development based on country criteria, while externalities require all projects to carry out an impact assessment study and present impact mitigation strategies if need be. Certification means that projects must be independently verified and certified. See chapter 2.2.1 and 3.3 for details on CDM criteria and procedures. Only one CDM forestry project has been approved to date. However, current distribution of projects (energy and forestry) in the Kyoto based mechanisms is highly uneven. Asia is leading with about 73%, followed by Latin America with about 17% and Africa is trailing with less than 3% (Capoor and Ambrosi, 2006a; CD4CDM, 2006). Africa hosted less than 14% of projects during the experimental phase of the CDM known as Activities Implemented Jointly- AIJ phase (1995 –2001). With projections indicating the size of the CDM market could be 217 – 640 million tCO2 per year by 2010 (Haites, 2004), there is great concern that Africa may lose out on opportunities. Broad estimates by Jindal et al. (2006) indicate that 13 of the 19 projects in Africa may produce only 32.23 million tCO2 under different timelines. This inertia is also evident with the development of water protection and ecotourism services compared to Latin America and Asia (Pagiola et al., 2005) I have chosen the CDM as the focus of this study because it offers a ready framework for Africa to join in the short term.

1.5

The Research Problem

Inertia in CDM forestry project development in Africa is the central problem being addressed in this research. A number of reasons have been advanced for this inertia.

5

Introduction

To begin with, the CDM was conceived through a lengthy multi-lateral negotiation process for implementation at the local level in developing countries. Most often developing countries have had one representative each, while developed countries sometimes have tens or more negotiators (Najam et al, 2003; Mwandosya, 2000). As a result, little attention was paid to the interests and local realities in the host country contexts within which this policy is being implemented. Hence, the IPCC report (2000) noted that current CDM modalities and information requirements are beyond the scope of poor communities. Desanker (2005) also cites poor institutional capacity, policy support and knowledge and skills as factors that explain Africa’s inertia in carbon project development. However, little research has been done to empirically explain the “implementability” of an internationally negotiated environmental policy such as the CDM in Africa or indeed other parts of the world (Michealowa, 2003; Masripatin, 2005). This study attempts to make a contribution in this respect by analysing CDM modalities vis-à-vis local realities in Cameroon. This thesis argues that International environmental policy such as the CDM would have to go through a filter of national and possibly regional level policy mediation to get to the operational level where projects are implemented. Successful implementation is thus dependent on the realities at national, subnational and project level. Coming from the outside, a first challenge for global environmental policy implementation would be the degree to which related national policy could contradict or compromise and facilitate or inhibit local understanding and its application (Harmon, 2001; IPCC, 2000; Kennett, 2002). In this instance national policy includes aspects of forest and land use policy. Given the stringent and cumbersome information requirements of the CDM, a second challenge for its implementation could be the degree to which data and information infrastructure at national, sub-national and project level can accommodate and facilitate its implementation (IPCC 2000; IPCC, 2003). Since actual project implementation of CDM happens at project level, the capabilities of communities to handle the procedural prescriptions of the CDM is also crucial for determining success, failure or non-implementation of the policy (Asquith et al, 2002; Bass et al., 2000; Smith and Scherr, 2002). This refers to specific capacity issues including knowledge, skills, resources and resource governance. CDM requirements and the above dimensions suggest that some degree of synergy in multilateral, macro, meso and micro policy is required for successful implementation. But, the degree to which these multi-scale objectives and

6

Chapter 1

policies dovetail in carbon projects has received little attention from research (Harmon, 2001; Kennett, 2002). This study addresses the complex problem of multi-scale policy synergy under five specific but interconnected dimensions namely: national policy, information management, community capacity, local knowledge and local forest governance.

1.6

The conceptual framework

Figure 1.1 presents the conceptual framework of the study. This framework consists of two sections; the carbon policy system and the research process. The carbon policy system set-up to achieve climate change mitigation through forestry can be disaggregated into five major systems namely, a. b. c. d. e.

The Global Climate Change Mitigation policy system National Forest and Environment Systems Community (Project) Forest Management System Markets (corporate bodies and funds) Designated Operational Entities (certification bodies)

The community system can be further disaggregated into two sub-systems namely, the Carbon Project Planning Management and the Community Environment. The former is driven and shaped mainly by the CDM requirements and to some extent the national level community forestry provisions. The often top-down perspectives of policy development at International level (e.g. CDM) and National level for the most part ignore ground realities defined by the community environment sub-system at project scale. As a result, the CDM requirements are complex and therefore well beyond the skills and capabilities of local communities in the developing world (IPCC, 2000). Compatibility issues between CDM requirements, national forest policy, sustainable local livelihood and indigenous knowledge make understanding and the response to these requirements in carbon project development at local level complex. This study analyses the compatibility between the International CDM rules and three local reality aspects namely, national community forest policy; forest information infrastructure; and community capacity. It then proceeds to develop Participatory GIS based collaborative planning methods that will enhance project development as one route to improving CDM forestry project uptake in Cameroon (right hand side of figure 1.1).

7

Introduction

This section shows the conceptualisation of the research process in four steps. 1.

A multi-scale analysis of the compatibility between CDM rules and national forest policy. (Policy Analysis)

2.

A multi-scale information compatibility analysis to determine information / data needs for carbon planning (Information analysis)

3.

Development and use of a participatory institutional assessment framework for meeting carbon planning needs within the Kyoto protocol framework (Institutional analysis, management capacity and information supply)

4.

The development of Participatory-GIS methods for meeting carbon planning spatial information needs.

One key aspect of the study is to develop methods that will accommodate or integrate community systems, knowledge and interests into the Kyoto framework.

1.6.1

Policy Implementation: the point of departure

This study seeks to understand the implementation of global environmental policy at the local level and therefore takes policy implementation theory as the basic starting point. By policy is meant, the methods, laws, administration and decisions related to forest, land use and environmental services for climate change within the CDM and the Kyoto Protocol. Contextual Interaction Theory-CIT (Bressers and O'Toole, 2005; Bressers 2004), has been chosen as the policy analysis tool for this study, because it encompasses both the substantive and actor-interaction dimensions to policy analysis when compared to other tools such as Policy Network Analysis, Discourse Analysis or Historical Institutionalism (van den Brink and Meijerink, 2006) Contextual Interaction Theory (CIT) explains the process of implementation of policy instruments and attempts to predict whether in a given case there will be any implementation at all, and under what conditions adequate implementation will occur. It can also be used to determine the degree of adequacy of the implementation of policy with respect to “targets”. It is based on the assumption that the course and outcomes of policy implementation depend not only on the characteristics of the policy instruments (inputs) but more importantly on the characteristics of the actors and interactions involved, especially the motivation (perception and interpretation of instrument, values, preferences and incentives), power (the relative ability of actors to influence

8

Chapter 1

policy as determined by bargaining strength and resources) and information (availability, access and control) (Bressers 2004; Bressers and O’Toole, 2005). The interaction of these three variables of motivation, power and information results in a prediction of the policy implementation process. (See chapter 2.4.1 for more on CIT).

Conceptual Framework Carbon Policy System

a

Research Process Concept

Global Climate Change Mitigation System -UNFCCC / Kyoto Protocol Frameworks CDM Mechanisms / Requirements (Additionality, eligibility, etc)

Interpretation / Inventory of CDM Requirements (Policy Analysis )

1

Detailed CDM requirements

b National Forest/ Environment System -Policy -Institutions

d

c

Markets CDM / WB Funds / USA

e

National CF and related Policy Analysis Accredited Certification Bodies

Local CF Institutional Analysis

Community Forest Management System Community Environmental Factors -Sustainable Livelihoods -Local Knowledge -Institutions -Resources

3

Information supply Capabilities

CF PPM - Institutional development

2 Carbon Forestry Information analysis

- CF area designation Forest Inventory -Management Plan Development

Development of PGIS supported collaborative planning methods

-Negotiations -Monitoring -Benefit Sharing

4

Carbon Information Needs

Collaborative PGIS supported planning methods (Models)

Key Main Systems Sub-systems Output

Business Negotiations Process

CF

Community Forest

PPM

Information flow

WB

Project Planning and Management World Bank

Figure 1.1 Conceptual Framework We directly apply CIT in the analysis in chapter 1, where policy instruments in Cameroon are analysed. In the remaining chapters we focus on the power and information components of CIT, but we apply multiple and more specialised analytical tools and methods from information science and institutional analysis. In summary, it is the CIT ontology / taxonomy that has guided the structuring of this study.

9

Introduction

1.6.2

Participatory-GIS: a carbon forestry enhancement approach

After completing policy analysis at national, regional and project level in chapters 2, 3 and 4, in chapters 5 and 6, PGIS is employed as one route to mitigating the hurdles to project development that emerge from policy analysis. Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PGIS) refers to a variety of approaches aimed at making GIS and other spatial decision-making tools more accessible and available to those with stakes in decisions (Schroeder 1997 in Obermeyer 1998). Jordan (1999) refers to PGIS as “the use of GIS in a participatory context”. Abbot et al. (1998) refer to PGIS in developing country context as “an attempt to utilise GIS technology in the context of the needs and capabilities of communities that will be involved with, and affected by development projects and programmes”. PGIS developed as a response to criticisms from social scientists that criticised GIS as being top-down, complex and inaccessible as a tool designed to facilitate decision-making (Rambaldi et al. 2006a). Applications of PGIS have been growing. The range of methods and techniques has evolved from sketch mapping through GIS mapping, three-dimensional modelling, photo-mapping and mobile-GIS to multi-media applications for visualisation. PGIS applications in forest management have also been growing – see examples in (Lescuyer et al., 2001; Jordan 2002; Kwaku-Kyem, 2002; Mbile et al., 2003; McCall and Minang, 2005). See chapters 5.2.3 and 6.4.3 for details on PGIS. PGIS is one approach that prides itself in local efficiency and effectiveness in terms of simultaneously meeting content needs, answering questions asked of geo-information and satisfying local stakeholder interests. As such, there is an often-made assumption that PGIS is a tool for better resource governance (McCall, 2003). Hence, I have chosen to explore its potential as an enhancement approach to CDM forestry uptake and development. This reasoning is justified by the information (evidence) provision bias of the CDM modalities.

1.7

Research Questions

The primary research question to be answered by the study is: To what extent can local realities limit the scope for developing countries to participate in the CDM? Secondary research questions include:

10

Chapter 1

1.

How compatible is Cameroon’s national forest policy with the CDM forestry modalities? (Step 1 of figure 1.1) a. What are the CDM requirements of national policy? b. What are the main CDM-relevant features of current community forest policy in Cameroon? c. How do these features of national forest policy support or inhibit CDM forestry implementation in Cameroon?

2.

In what ways can the current forest data/information management infrastructure in Cameroon support carbon forestry project uptake and implementation? (Step 2 of figure 1.1) a.

What are the carbon forestry implementation information demands / needs at the national, sub-national and project level? b. What is the nature of Cameroon’s forestry data infrastructure? c. To what extent does the current data infrastructure support the carbon forestry information demands? d. What strategies are required to enhance the CDM information supply capacity? 3.

To what extent can current community planning and management capacity meet the carbon forestry project requirements of the CDM? (Step 3 of figure 1.1) a.

What are the community capacity conditions for CDM forestry project implementation? b. What are the community capacity characteristics within community forestry in Cameroon? c. How adequately can communities meet the capacity requirements for the CDM?

4.

How effectively can local spatial knowledge represent land eligibility evidence for CDM forestry project validation? (Step 4 of figure 1.1) a. What are the CDM land eligibility evidence criteria? b. What are the potentials of local spatial knowledge in providing CDM land eligibility evidence? c. To what extent can maps generated by combining PRA and GIS compare to satellite images of land use in the benchmark years for eligibility in CDM forestry? d. What additional value is obtained from using a PGIS approach?

11

Introduction

5.

In what ways can Participatory-GIS contribute to community carbon forestry good governance in Cameroon? (Step 4 of figure 1.1) a. What are the components of governance in community carbon forestry? b. What is the potential of PGIS in promoting good governance in community-based natural resource management? c. In what ways did PGIS improve good governance for potential community carbon forestry cases in Cameroon?

Each research question and its corresponding sub-questions are addressed in a chapter in the same order as presented above. These chapters are briefly presented at the end of this chapter (in chapter 1.9). The first three constitute the multi-scale analysis while the last two develop PGIS-based enhancement approaches to some of the issues that emerge from the preceding policy analysis.

1.8

Methods and Context

1.8.1

Methods

This study employs a battery of methods within a participatory action research approach. A summary of the methods is presented as part of figure 1.2. The choice of a plethora of methods can be explained by the “unstructured” or “soft” nature of the problem to be addressed. An unstructured or soft problem could be one that has one or more of the following characteristics; revolves around human understanding or interpretations of environment /policy; a situation with obscure goals and or conflicting goals; and susceptibility to or involvement of multiple variables that could be influenced by time or history (Barry and Fourie, 2002; Checkland and Scholes, 1993). All three can be seen in the problem this study seeks to contribute to solving. The interdisciplinary nature of the CDM rules and the required relationship to national and local policy and the CFM context qualify the problem being investigated in this study as soft or unstructured. Four sets of data collection and analysis methods are distinguished in this study; (i) policy science methods; (ii) information science methods; (iii) institutional analysis (iv) and spatial information sciences. These methods are applied in each of the chapters. Suffice to note that this distinction is only to enable a better understanding, as there was some degree of iteration in the field, hence less crisp boundaries between these sets of methods.

12

Chapter 1

1.8.2

Policy Context: Community forestry in Cameroon

Community forestry was born through a long process of forest reforms that started in 1988 with the development of the Cameroon Tropical Forestry Action Plan. The process resulted in the promulgation of a new forestry Law No. 94-1 of 20 January 1994 in which a community forest is defined as follows: “that part of non-permanent forest estate (not more than 5000ha) that is the object of an agreement between government and a community in which communities undertake sustainable forest management for a period of 25 years renewable” (MINEF, 1998). Community forestry emerged as a key feature in the forestry policy landscape as an attempt to strengthen the participation of local people in forest management and conservation so that forestry can contribute to raising their living standards (Government of Cameroon, 1993; 1995). (See chapter 2.3 for more community forest information). Community forestry was chosen for this study because the policy provisions for community forestry provide an institutional and regulatory framework for project appraisal, approval and verification by the Sub-Directorate of Community Forestry in the Ministry of Forests and Fauna. Rules and regulations are elaborated in the Manual of Procedures and Norms for the Management of Community Forests (MINEF, 1998). No other forest management unit in Cameroon has such a regulatory framework. The framework also leaves open the possibility for private investments to be made in community forests as long as they are agreed between the community forest legal entity and the private investor. These characteristics identify community forests with the CDM framework.

13

14

Figure 1.2 Enhanced Conceptual Framework Development of PGIS supported collaborative planning methods

Multi-scale and multidimensional process

Overall Question Local realities and developing country participation in CDM

Carbon forestry Information analysis

Local CF Institutional Analysis

National CF and related Policy Analysis (Policy Analysis ii)

Interpretation / Inventory of CDM Requirements (Policy Analysis i)

Research Process

5 Participatory-GIS and local carbon forestry governance

3 Community capabilities for Carbon management

4 Local spatial knowledge and CDM eligibility evidence

2 Potential of extant forest data infrastructure to support CDM

1 Compatibility between CDM requirements and national policy

Research Questions

Policy science, information science, institutional analysis and spatial information methods

PRA tools (Chiefly Oral history, sketch mapping, transects and FGDs); Image Interpretation; GIS; GPS use; Meetings

Review of secondary data (reports, statutes etc); Interviews; Focus Group Discussions; Semi-Structured Interviews; and Content analysis

Review of Policy documents; Review of secondary data; Interviews; Focus Group Discussions; Direct Observtion; Grounded Theory; SWOT analysis

Review Kyoto/CDM and National Policy documents; Literature review; Contextual Interaction Theory (CIT); Content Analysis

Research Methods

Chapter 7: Multi-level governance conditions in CDM implementation

Chapter 6: PGIS and Local carbon forestry governance

Chapter 5: Local Knowledge and CDM eligibility evidence

Chapter 4: Community Capacity for implementing CDM forestry

Chapter 3: Forest Data infrastructure and CDM

Chapter 2: National forest policy and the CDM

Research Outputs (Chapters / Papers)

Introduction

Chapter 1

Secondly, many authors have argued that community forest management has the potential of fulfilling the triple objectives of biodiversity conservation, supporting local development and providing forest services such as carbon sequestration (Klooster and Masera, 2000; Smith and Scherr, 2003). Hence, if well managed it could contribute substantially to the achievement of CDM objectives. Thirdly, there is a growing potential as more forests in Cameroon are coming under community management following the 1994 forest legislation. By January 2006, there were 334 applications from communities to the Ministry of Forests and Fauna (MINFOF). Of the 334 applications, 90 community forests were under full community management, meaning the figure more than quadrupled from 17 in December 2001. Total area under community forestry could attain 1 million hectares in five years (i.e. 200 community forests at a maximum of 5000ha). However, a good number of the community forests are being hijacked by financially lucrative deals from timber exploiters –about 44% of all community forests as of December 2003 (MINEF, 2003 pg 69 - 73). This runs contrary to the sustainable management objectives that justified the introduction of community forestry. Carbon forestry might provide a lucrative alternative or at least some competition with timber exploitation in this sector. A disadvantage of choosing community forestry is that a large part of community forests in Cameroon practice forest management, which is not currently eligible for CDM. Relatively fewer community forests practice afforestation or reforestation, currently eligible for the CDM. However, the prospects of, and pressure for, forest management entering into the post-2012 Kyoto Protocol framework and into the non-compliant or voluntary carbon market are good (Santili et al., 2005; Skutsch et al., 2006), thereby justifying a study of the possibilities of proactive forest policy that could apply to all forests in the country.

1.8.3

Study area

Cameroon is found in Central Africa and located between latitudes 1o 60 and 13o 15 N and longitudes 8o 30 and 16o 15 E. It shares boundaries to the west with Nigeria, to the North with Chad, to the East and North East with the Central African Republic, to the south with Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon, and the Republic of Congo to the southeast. It has a total area of 475 440 sq km and an estimated population of about 16 million. 70% of the inhabitants are involved in agriculture. Chief exports include crude oil, timber, cocoa, coffee, cotton and aluminium products.

15

Introduction

The two study sites, Tinto and Bimbia Bonadikombo are located in the South West Province of the country (see figure 1.3). These communities are presented briefly in the ensuing paragraphs.

1.8.3.1 The Tinto Community Location and Biophysical environment: The Tinto community is located in the north of the South West Province of Cameroon at the main point of entry of tributaries of the Manyu River. The area is a well-drained area lying on average about 160 m above sea level with a high point of about 240 meters a.s.l. Average rainfall is about 2000mm/yr with a double peak. A short dry season occurs between November and March. Tinto falls within the rich evergreen forest areas of Cameroon known for their endemic species. Socio-economic and cultural environment: The community consists of three neighbouring villages of the same clan, Tinto Bessinghe, Tinto Kerieh and Tinto Mbu, in descending order of size. The total population is estimated at between 1600 and 1800 (Minang, 2003). It is a very homogenous community with few inhabitants (less than 1%) coming from other parts of the country and is typically rural in character. However with the status of a sub-divisional headquarters it has administrative functions including the local forest administration offices, a high school and a district dispensary. Most of the inhabitants are farmers of cocoa and coffee and subsistence crops such as cassava and maize. Forest extraction activities include hunting, NTFP collection and Timber exploitation. History: The population of Tinto settled in the current location in about 1836 from the Noun Division area in the Western province of Cameroon. The families then split to occupy a wider area resulting in the three villages that make up the clan. The three Chiefs and councils have a federal system at the clan level represented by the clan council. Customary laws form the basis of clan council decision-making. The eldest chief on the throne presides over the clan council, which oversees local resource management policy. This covers farming rights given mainly in terms of the ability to clear forest, after paying some symbolic gifts to the council. The council also administers sacred groves and has introduced and enforced local rules to reduce the use of poisons and explosives in fishing. In terms of forest management, part of the forest within the clan boundaries is in the Banyang Mbo sanctuary, wherein they work with the ministry to regulate forest management activities. Community forestry was introduced only in November 1999 through Living Earth Foundation (an NGO). Taking advantage of the forestry law provisions the community accepted to initiate the

16

Chapter 1

community forestry planning process. The community worked with the forest department staff and Living Earth through this planning process between December 1999 and November 2002. The management agreement for a 1300 ha community forest was signed in December 2002 with government.

1.8.3.2 The Bimbia Bonadikombo Community Location and biophysical environment: The Bimbia Bonadikombo community is located along the coastline of the South West Province on the fringes of the coastal zone and the slopes of Mount Cameroon. Rainfall, temperature and humidity are high. Annual rainfall is between 4000 and 5000mm per annum. A short dry season is experienced between December and February. Humidity in the area is usually between 75-80%. Vegetation is evergreen with different types, littoral vegetation, mangrove, freshwater swamp forest, stream and riverside vegetation, and lowland rainforest (RCDC, 2002). The forests in the area are reported to have at least 42 endemic plant and two endemic bird species (Martin Cheek in RCDC, 2002) including a small population of elephants. Socio-economic and cultural environment: The community is a complex of many villages namely, Mbonjo, Chopfarm, Banangombe, Bonabile, Dikolo, Mabeta, Ombe Native (Bamukong), Bonadikombo and several plantation worker camps (see figure 1.3). All but two of these settlements are typical rural settings. Bonadikombo and Bonabile are peri-urban and located on the fringes of the Limbe (Victoria) urban community. Limbe and the surrounding areas have a population of about 123,900 inhabitants (RCDC, 2002). It is highly heterogeneous with few local people (of the Bakweri tribe), making the social and cultural environment complex. The occupational distribution of occupations residents in this community is diverse. A good number are plantation workers, working for the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) that owns huge plantations in the vicinity, some are fishermen, some farmers and some who commute to urban jobs in the heart of Limbe city. There are many who are involved in forest extraction activities which in order of importance, are timber exploitation, charcoal burning, fuel wood collection for income, hunting and NTFP collection (RCDC, 2002). History: This area is thought to have been settled by the predominant Bakweri tribe in the eighteenth century (Watts, 1994). Being a coastal tribe they were thus amongst the first tribes that were exposed to colonial influence. Due to the very fertile volcanic soils in the area, it became an important German station after the establishment of the Kamerun protectorate in 1884. The establishment of plantations in the area encouraged huge immigration into the area from the

17

Introduction

western parts of the country. This weakened cohesion within the native Bakweri tribe enabling a less traditional power structure. The paramount Chief, village chiefs and quarter heads constitute the hierarchy today.

Community Forest (3700 ha)

Figure 1.3 Map showing study area

18

C om

m uni

ty F or

est (1

30 0

ha)

Chapter 1

In this peri urban and heterogeneous setting, control of forest management by the native authorities has been difficult. The Chiefs and native people created two institutions, the Victoria Lands and Forest Conservation Committee (VLFCC) and the Victoria Area Rainforest Common Initiative Group (VARCIG) to identify and bring to justice those that illegally occupy or use the forest. The Mount Cameroon Project came in to help improve conservation in the area. In that process they introduced community forestry as an option. The community thus agreed to begin planning for a community forest in 1995. The community then worked with the MCP and MINEF through the planning process until March 2002. Actual management of the community forest started in August 2002.

1.9

Structure of the thesis

This thesis presents a multi-dimensional and multi-scale analysis of the influence of local realities on the implementation of the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol as an example of an international environmental agreement. Each chapter presents a unique angle of view corresponding to the five main research questions. Chapter 2 kicks off the multi-scale analysis with an examination of national forest policy instruments. It analyses the extent to which national forest policy in Cameroon can serve as a platform for community carbon forestry within the context of the CDM. The compatibility between forestry and related policy provisions in Cameroon and the CDM provisions for Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) is carefully examined. This focuses on the national policy dimension of the problem. Chapter 3 specifically analyses specifically the forestry and land use data in Cameroon in terms of its adequacy to support carbon forestry implementation at macro, meso and micro levels. It explores the structure of an enabling CDM host country data support infrastructure for forestry implementation, and also assesses the supply potential of current forestry information in Cameroon as an example of a ‘non-annex 1’ country. It therefore presents an information management perspective of the research problem Chapter 4 completes the multi-scale analysis by examining community capacity for CDM project initiation and management at the local level. It investigates the alleged asymmetry between community capacity and the requirements of the Clean Development Mechanism within community forests in Cameroon. In chapter 5 the research looks towards finding solutions to some of the problems that emerge in the multi-scale analysis in the preceding chapters. It addresses data scarcity issues affecting project development by building on

19

Introduction

local knowledge. The chapter presents a case study in which Participatory-GIS (PGIS) was employed and the “value-added” to local spatial knowledge assessed as one route to enhancing indigenous knowledge for carbon forestry planning within the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Chapter 6 delves further into PGIS potential for enhancing carbon forestry implementation through good governance support. It explores the potential for promoting local governance in community carbon forestry using participatoryGIS. It reviews ongoing community forestry PGIS process that incorporated carbon-planning activities for exploratory purposes in Bimbia Bonadikombo, Cameroon. Chapter 7 presents a synthesis of the research and highlights and discusses the salient issues that emerge. It also points to interesting and necessary future research ideas. The chapters in this thesis were written for publication as stand-alone articles; hence some of the material in this chapter is introductory and context-forming and needs to be further developed in the ensuing chapters as relevant. This initial chapter essentially lays out the conceptual foundations of this research in terms of problem formulation and structuring, research questions and methods, and the country and site-specific context of the analysis. The next chapter discusses the national policy dimension involved with implementing global environmental agreements such as the CDM.

20

Chapter 2 National Forest Policy as a Platform for Biosphere Carbon Management: The Case of Community Forestry in Cameroon∗

∗

Published as

Minang, P. A., H. Th. A. Bressers, M. M. Skutsch, and M. K. McCall, 2007. National Forest Policy as a Platform for Biosphere Carbon Management: The Case of Community Forestry in Cameroon. Environmental Science and Policy 10 (3):204-218.

21

National Forest Policy as Platform for Biosphere Carbon Management

Abstract Little attention has been given to the development of national policies relevant for the uptake, development and implementation of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects. In this paper we examine the compatibility between forestry and related policy provisions in Cameroon and the CDM provisions for Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF). For each CDM requirement such as eligibility, additionality, impact assessment and sustainable development, relevant national forestry policy questions are identified. These relevant policy questions are applied to community forestry policy instruments in Cameroon to analyse the likelihood that they can enhance or inhibit the uptake and implementation of biosphere carbon projects. We found that choosing a single crown cover value (from between 10 and 30%) presented a serious dilemma for Cameroon given its diverse vegetation cover. Adopting any single value within this range is unlikely to optimize national carbon management potential. The current forest institutional and regulatory policy framework in Cameroon is inadequate for promoting carbon forestry under current CDM rules. We conclude that national policy in Cameroon would need to recognise the need for and adopt a pro-active approach for biosphere carbon management, engaging in institutional development, integrated planning, project development support and providing adequate regulatory frameworks to enhance sustainable development through CDM projects. The need for CDM/Kyoto capacity building support for proactive national and local policy development is highlighted.

Keywords: Clean Development Mechanism, Land Use Land Use Change and Forestry, Policy Instruments, Community Forestry, Cameroon

22

Chapter 2

2.1

Introduction

Current rules for carbon forestry projects within the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol are the result of a lengthy multilateral negotiation process, yet their implementation is expected at project level in developing countries. The assumption is that national policy will accommodate and mediate between the international and the project levels. This paper is about compatibility between Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) forestry project provisions and national policies on land use and land use change forestry. It examines the ways in which extant community forestry policy in Cameroon could support or inhibit the uptake and implementation of carbon forestry as a developing country example. But we begin by considering along what lines a supportive national policy is needed for CDM / Kyoto implementation. The Kyoto Protocol provides for the use of sinks in developing countries as one way of meeting greenhouse gas reduction targets through the CDM. The CDM is one of three “flexible mechanisms” in the Kyoto Protocol designed to accomplish the objectives of the UNFCCC. It makes provision for investment by industrialised countries and industry in projects related to carbon emission reduction and carbon sequestration in developing countries. These projects should contribute to sustainable development in developing countries (i.e. NonAnnex 1 countries) while enabling developed countries (i.e. Annex 1 countries with quantified emission reduction targets) to meet the Kyoto emission reduction and quantified emission limitation targets (Art. 12.2 of the Kyoto Protocol). Annexe 1 countries or other entities would buy carbon credits from CDM projects through multilateral systems such as the World Bank or the European Union. Biosphere carbon projects are required to meet certain conditions in order to acquire Certified Emission Reductions from the Executive Board of the CDM. Main conditions include additionality (mitigation effects with project must be additional to what would have happened without project); leakage (project mitigation effects must not be offset by impacts outside the accounting boundary); and contribution to sustainable development (to be demonstrated according to host country rules). Certified Emission Reductions represent the emission reduction or sequestration output of a project, and constitute the basis on which payments are made. The negotiations that arrived at the above-mentioned requirements have been long, expensive and have included little more than one representative from most developing countries at each stage. The modalities deal mainly with issues relating to the carbon accounting, market mechanisms and specific project levelissues. As a result, little attention has been paid to relevant national and sub-

23

National Forest Policy as Platform for Biosphere Carbon Management

national policy in developing countries, which are required to make carbon management within the CDM a reality. The extent to which policies can support the CDM and how much change or adjustments might be required of policy to enable such support in developing countries is not well known. Two relevant studies have been reported so far (Masripatin, 2005; Michaelowa, 2003). Masripatin (2005) describes Indonesia’s preparation for forestry projects under the CDM. She highlights the creation of a Designated National Authority (DNA) for Indonesia comprising a National Commission made of representatives from nine ministries; a Technical team made of representatives of nine ministries and WWF Indonesia as an NGO representative; and a DNA secretariat. The study also describes a national project approval procedure in which responsibilities are shared between the Ministry of Forestry and the DNA. The Ministry approves and recommends a project following appraisal of a project concept note and local district or municipal recommendation on eligibility of forest based on whether the proposed land is conflict free, absence of fires and land ownership conditions. The Ministerial approval must be completed within 30 days of receipt of the project concept note. The DNA will further assess the technical aspects of the project design document. The values for the definition of forest in Indonesia have also been given as, minimum land area of 0.25ha; 30% crown cover and 5m tree height. The process for the development of these policy responses entailed the creation of a CDM Working Group in the Ministry of Forestry that facilitated information dissemination, capacity building and policy development; a national strategy study on the CDM in the forestry sector by the Ministry of Forestry in 2003; and a nationwide forest eligibility for CDM identification using available forestry data. Michaelowa (2003) examines CDM host country institution building requirements including case studies from Morocco, Indonesia and India. He finds an independent CDM office with full approval powers as the optimum institutional option for a DNA. A second best solution would be a two-tiered system- i.e. a CDM board with representatives of ministries that would define criteria and priorities whereas a CDM secretariat would evaluate (and possibly approve) project proposals and do outreach and marketing. Small countries could use the existing UNFCCC focal point and flexibly involve consultants if project proposals come in. He also finds that long-term professional staff in these institutions would be an important asset. Organised information exchange and capacity building for actors will increase competence and also investor confidence, while fights between ministries are likely to scare investors. These studies present interesting dimensions of national policy responses to the current CDM requirements. Though the Indonesia case provides valuable information, it remains largely descriptive. Michaelowa’s study is limited to national institutional questions and the criteria for sustainable development.

24

Chapter 2

Policy makers would require a more holistic, systematic and analytical study to be able to develop relevant policy instruments to facilitate terrestrial carbon management. It is to these more holistic and analytical dimensions of the discussion that this paper aims to make a contribution. In-depth policy analysisdown to the small print is presented, demonstrating that such an analysis is necessary for every non-annex 1 country. This Cameroon case does not only show results, but also how such a study can be made. This paper is structured as follows; section two presents the current CDM forestry requirements and the derived framework for assessing forest policy compatibility to the CDM. Section three presents community forestry policy in Cameroon, while section four elaborates the study methods. The study results are presented in section five and emerging issues discussed in section six. Section seven presents the conclusions of the study.

2.2

CDM Forestry Requirements and Forest Policy Assessment Framework

2.2.1

CDM Forestry Requirements

CDM projects are expected to meet a set of requirements prior to the issuance of certified emission reductions by the CDM Executive board. These requirements are articulated in the Kyoto Protocol and in subsequent decisions taken during the Conferences and Meetings of Parties. These requirements can be summarised under the following categories: eligibility, additionality, acceptability, externalities and certification. They are derived from a review of the CDM modalities (Decisions 19/CP.9 and 14/CP.10), the Marrakech Accords, and commentary and analytical literature on the modalities (FAO, 2004; Lee, 2004; Sedjo et al., 2001; Vine et al., 2001). In the ensuing paragraphs we briefly present the CDM requirements.

2.2.1.1 Eligibility Eligibility of land for CDM is given by two aspects. Firstly, the suitability of the forest within the definition of forest provided by the host country as provided for under Decisions 11/CP.7 and 19/CP.9 of the Conference of Parties. These decisions require countries to determine national threshold values of crown cover, tree height and minimum land area, which together will constitute the definition of a forest. These decisions also provide ranges within which countries can choose as follows; between 10 and 30 % for crown cover; 2 and 5 m for tree height; and 0.05 and 1 ha for minimum land area. These values have to be determined and communicated by the Designated National Authority.

25

National Forest Policy as Platform for Biosphere Carbon Management

The second eligibility condition refers to the type of forestry activity. Only afforestation and reforestation (AR) activities are eligible under the CDM during the first commitment period. Afforestation would mean planting trees on land that has been below all the threshold values (crown cover, tree height and minimum land area) of the host country definition for a period of at least 50 years. Reforestation would mean planting on land that was below the threshold values on 31 December 1989.

2.2.1.2 Additionality Sequestration or emission reduction due to project activities must be “additional” to any that would occur in the absence of the project (Paragraphs 18-22 of Decision 19/CP.9). In other words, additionality implies that projects must result in a net storage of carbon and therefore a net removal of carbon from the atmosphere. Other forms of additionality include programme, financial and investment additionality. Programme additionality means that emission reductions are additional to emissions required by law or government policy. Financial additionality is the requirement that funding for the implementation of projects must not come from overseas development or environment assistance funds. Investment additionality refers to where a project might justify additionality by showing that the creation of carbon offsets will involve costs that would not be incurred in the business as usual scenario. Though not a requirement per se it is a way of demonstrating “intent” and effort through financial analysis. The draft tool for the demonstration of additionality in AR CDM projects (Annex 16 of CDM Executive Board Report No. 12) identifies some key steps that project developers could follow including: • • • • •

Preliminary screening based on the starting date of the project activity and the specific features of the afforestation and reforestation activity (Mapping and map analysis, land use and land tenure analysis); Identification of alternatives to the project activity consistent with current laws and regulations (land use analysis, estimates/measurements of carbon stocks, projections, baseline development); Investment / financial analysis (Internal Rates of Return, Net Present Value, cost benefit ratio, sensitivity analysis etc.) Barrier analysis (investment, institutional, technological, cultural, social, ecological and others such as risks of fire, conflicts etc); and Impact of CDM registration (Expected).

It is worth noting that most aspects of additionality are applicable at project level, while this paper deals with macro and meso (national and sub-national) policy. As a result, we focus on policy aspects that influence additionality such 26

Chapter 2

as land use and land tenure and forest risk management policies- see assessment framework in section 2.2.

2.2.1.3 Acceptability The Kyoto Protocol states that all carbon offset projects in developing countries are required to contribute to sustainable development (Article 2.1 and 12.2 and Decision 19/CP.9). Host countries have to have criteria for sustainable development by which projects will be judged. In addition, projects must be consistent with other international agreements and guidelines such as the Convention on Biodiversity, Agenda 21, Ramsar and others. Decision 19/CP.9 also lays out the responsibility of evaluating AR CDM projects with respect to risks associated with the use of potentially invasive alien species or genetically modified organisms. The preamble of the abovementioned decision recognizes that host countries will have laws against which afforestation and reforestation will be evaluated.

2.2.1.4 Externalities (Environmental Impact and Leakage) Projects must demonstrate a clear strategy to deal with all impacts/effects that may arise from project implementation. These impacts could include positive or negative social, cultural, economic or environmental impacts. Projects have to show how the negative impacts would be mitigated or countered. A prominent aspect in externalities is the question of leakage. Leakage can be defined as unplanned emissions that could occur outside project boundaries as a result of project activities. Imagine a decision to cut down on fuel wood harvesting from a given forest in order to allow for regeneration. As a result, fuel wood harvesters may increase harvesting in a neighbouring forest area. This shift in activity to another adjoining forest will trigger loss of biomass / carbon that is being preserved in the regenerating forest. The loss outside the boundaries of the regenerating forest is known as leakage. Leakage can also result from demand and supply changes of land or certain related products. Leakage should not disqualify a project except in instances where projections of emissions are substantial enough to negate projected carbon offsets. However, project analysis must show how leakage has been estimated and what measures will be put in place to minimize it.

2.2.1.5 Certification The concreteness, measurability and long-term characteristics of the project will have to be checked independently by a third-party (i.e. a Designated Operational Entity) accredited by the CDM executive board. This takes place in 27

National Forest Policy as Platform for Biosphere Carbon Management

three stages during the CDM project cycle namely validation, verification and certification. Validation is the process of independent evaluation of proposed project activity based on the Project Design Document against the CDM requirements. The outcome is the registration of the project. Verification is the independent review process of monitored reductions or sequestration that occurred as a result of a registered project activity for a given period. This is an ex-post check to confirm whether or not and to what extent carbon offsets have actually been attained. Certification is the process by which the designated operational entity gives written assurance of the emission reduction or sequestration achieved by the project during a specified time period as verified. The result is the issuance of Certified Emissions Reductions.

2.2.1.6 Small-Scale Afforestation and Reforestation projects Following discussions on the complications and costs involved in responding to the rules or requirements outlined above, modalities were then simplified for “small-scale projects”. Decision 14/CP.10 defines small scale A/R projects as those that will result in net greenhouse gas removals by sinks of less than 8 kilo tonnes of carbon dioxide per year during the crediting period. Moreover, the host country has to confirm that the project developers are a low-income community or individuals. From the above, it will be clear that CDM requirements are framed basically for projects (micro level), but this paper is focused on elements of national (macro level) forest policy that could facilitate or inhibit the implementation of these requirements at the project level. We further analyse these requirements to elucidate national forest policy determinants of compatibility to CDM, which are used to assess community forestry policy in Cameroon.

2.2.2

A Framework Assessment

for

Forestry

Policy

Compatibility

In this section, we review the CDM requirements in order to elucidate parameters of national policy suitability or compatibility. Our presentation is based on direct references and analytical judgements about which national policy provisions would facilitate or inhibit the fulfilment of these project level CDM requirements. Table 2.1 presents the framework for forest policy compatibility assessment derived from this analysis. It consists of a number of

28

Chapter 2

questions that can be asked of national policy for every CDM requirement category. A first requirement for a country to partake of CDM projects is the creation or definition of a Designated National Authority (DNA) with overall responsibility for CDM activities at the national level. All countries have to constitute and identify such an institution, which will be the main link between the host country and the CDM process at international level. This body will also oversee project approval. Michealowa (2003) notes that the structure, functions and capacity of these institutions could vary from country to country. Eligibility: In terms of eligibility host country authorities are given a direct responsibility to determine threshold values of crown cover, tree height and minimum land area to make up what will constitute a definition of forests. This is a precondition for participation within CDM A/R activities. The second aspect of eligibility relates to small-scale projects. Decisions 19/CP.9 (Annex Ai) and 14/CP.10 indicate that host country governments need to approve that project developers are low income communities or individuals in order for the project to be validated. They would thus have to determine what criteria would define such a community. Additionality: We base our analysis on land use and land tenure rights and risk management because most aspects of additionality are applicable at the project level. Decision 19/CP.9 (Paragraph 20e) and the draft tool for the demonstration of additionality in AR CDM projects indicate that all project baselines must take into account all applicable laws and regulations as well as relevant national and/or sectoral policies and circumstances. These include land-use and related regulations, tax and investment regulations historical land uses, practices and economic trends. This means the designated national authority or ministry in charge of approval must have information to check these compliance points for every project in the country. It may also imply well functioning institutional structure across scales. Variables might be different in different parts of the country. For example, in Indonesia district authorities are required to give clearance to the Ministry of Forestry on issues relating to conflicts over land/ ownership of resources and the degree of risks in terms of fire (Masripatin, 2005). Land and resource tenure rights are important for carbon forestry. FERN (2000) highlight how unclear ownership and tenure rights led to conflicts over land and consequent failure of a carbon project in Uganda.

29

National Forest Policy as Platform for Biosphere Carbon Management

Table 2.1 Framework for national forest policy-CDM compatibility assessment CDM requirements Institutional Development

Eligibility

Additionality

Acceptability

Externalities

Certification

Compatibility question or determinant a. What is the nature of the Designated National Authority? b. How do current institutions support CDM projects? c. What is the country definition of a forest? d. What is the country definition of a low-income community or Individual? e. How are the land and resource tenure rights implemented? f. How does forest policy cater for forest resource management risks? g. What are the sustainable development criteria and indicators for the host country? h. What laws regulate the use of potentially invasive species and genetically modified organisms in the forestry sector? i. How are environmental and social impact assessment regulations applied in resource management? j. What procedural regulations exist for CDM project approval?

The potential role of policy provisions in helping with risk of project failure is an important consideration. CDM projects are likely to face a number of risks including political, legal, institutional, financial, market and physical risks. Policy changes at the international level and property rights at the national level are examples of political risks. Non-respect of contracts, non-compliance with guarantees and expropriation are examples of legal risks. Carbon prices are speculative and unpredictable therefore, a source of risks for projects especially when juxtaposed with project performance in terms of certified emission reductions delivery, as well as cost and time investments. Fire and disease are examples of physical risks. Acceptability: Article 12 of the Kyoto protocol stipulates that CDM projects must contribute to sustainable development in host countries. Host countries are given the responsibility in Decision 19/CP. 10 to define sustainable development criteria and ensure that projects adhere to these criteria as a condition for CDM project registration. Therefore countries have to define a procedure for project approval. A second aspect of acceptability that is to be assessed is compliance with regulations governing the use of potentially invasive species and genetically modified organisms in the forestry sector.

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Externalities: Project developers have to demonstrate that the projects will not have any adverse environmental and social impacts if they get registered as CDM projects. Alternatively, if such negative impacts are likely, they need to show how they will be mitigated. This implies that rules for impact assessment ought to be in place at the national level or sub-national level. Countries also have to approve the analysis. This also means that there has to be a procedure for such approval. Validation: National project approval is an important part of the validation process in the CDM. National approval would cover issues relating to sustainable development, impact assessment, and stakeholder involvement and consultation. This implies once more that a procedure needs to be in place to cater for project approval. Such a procedure would specify roles and responsibilities of the various national actors. Hence, in the case of validation we can also ask whether a procedure for project approval exists at the national level. It is worth noting that many of these assessment issues are closely related and sometimes difficult to distinguish. There are crosscutting issues that are relevant to all the project requirements. These could include procedural and institutional issues. We attempt to reflect this in our analysis based on insights from community forestry policy in Cameroon. Notwithstanding the focus on community forestry, we occasionally refer to more general forestry policy when the need arises.

2.3

An Outline of Community forestry Policy in Cameroon

2.3.1

Community forestry within forest landscape

Community forestry was born through a long process of forest reforms that started in 1988 with the development of the Tropical Forestry Action Plan. The reform process had five broad national forest policy objectives and corresponding strategies for their achievement (Government of Cameroon, 1993; 1995). These were: • • • •

To safeguard/protect the forest heritage, environment and biodiversity; Strengthen the participation of local population in forest management and conservation so that forestry can contribute to raising their living standards; Enhance forest resources and their contribution to the national gross domestic product while preserving productivity; and Ensure the regeneration of forest resources by plantations in order to perpetuate potential; and

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National Forest Policy as Platform for Biosphere Carbon Management

•

Revitalise the forest sector by setting up an efficient institutional framework.

The process resulted in the revision of the forest law of 1981. A new forest law was enacted and promulgated, -Law No. 94-1 of 20 January 1994. The Prime Minister signed a corresponding implementation decree specifying details of the new law in 1995 (No. 95-531-PM of August 23 1995). Together, the 1994 law and its implementation decree laid out a new classification of forests, logging rights and conditions and norms for management of forests in Cameroon. This classification and conditions are summarised in Table 2.2. In 1995, the Prime Minister signed into law another instrument enacting the Indicative Land Use Framework (plan de zonage) -Decree No. 95-678-PM of 18 December 1995. This is a proposed broad land use plan drawn by the state but open to negotiations during implementation at the local level (Atyi, 2000). It is based on the rules and conditions stipulated in the 1994 law and its implementation decree of 1995. It is meant to plan all of the various forest types in Table 2.2 for the entire country, but only about 30% of the national territory has been covered within this zoning framework to date. Community forestry in Cameroon was chosen for this study because the policy provisions for community forestry provides a good institutional and regulatory framework for project appraisal, approval and verification by the SubDirectorate of community forestry in the Ministry of Forests and Fauna. Rules and regulations are elaborated in the Manual of Procedures and Norms for the Management of Community Forests (MINEF, 1998). No other forest management unit in Cameroon has such a regulatory framework. At the same time the framework leaves open the possibility for private investments to be made in community forests as long as they are agreed between the community forest legal entity and the private investor. These characteristics identify community forests with the CDM framework. Secondly, many authors have argued that community forest management has the potential of fulfilling the triple objectives of biodiversity conservation, supporting local development and providing forest services such as carbon sequestration (Klooster and Masera, 2000; Smith and Scherr, 2003). Hence, if well managed it could contribute substantially to the achievement of CDM objectives.

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Table 2.2 Summary of forest types and conditions in Cameroon A

I

Ia

Ib

B

I

II

IIa

IIb

Forest type or unit Permanent Forests (Also known as classified forests) Forests set aside for long-term use and should constitute at least 30% of total forest area in the country. State Forests (forêts domaniales) Comprise protected areas including national parks, forest reserves and sanctuaries with conservation as primary objective. They would require management plans Production forest reserves or Unité Forestière D’Aménagement (UFA). To enable sustainable lumber production. Forest concessions can be granted for an area of up to 200000 ha to licensed timber operators in these areas. Management plans are a requirement. Council Forests (forêts communales) Planted or natural forests managed by municipalities in their area. Planned logging and restoration/afforestation activities are allowed in these forests Non Permanent Forests Includes all unclassified forests that could be converted temporarily or permanently to purposes other than forestry. Private forests (forêts privées) Planted forests belonging to individuals in which logging, tree planting and management activities are allowed based on a management plan. Communal Forests (forêts du domaine nationale) This is a residual class of forests including all forests not included in permanent or private forest estates. Community Forests (forêts communautaire) Forest area within the communal forest estate, which is the object of an agreement between community and state. Maximum area is 5000 ha per forest. Management contracts run for 25 years renewable. It is the only forest estate communities own and is fully entitled to revenue from natural forest products. Communities may open their community forests to a sale of standing volume and other activities, provided they are agreed upon and included in the management plan. Sale of standing volume (ventes de coupe) An area of not more than 2500ha for which logging rights have been granted to a Licensed Timber Operator. No management plan is required.

NB: Communities have usufruct rights to all forest types in the country.

Source: Adapted from (Brown, 1999) and (Djeumo, 2001) Thirdly, there is a growing potential as more forests in Cameroon are coming under community management following new forest legislation in 1994 introducing community forestry. By January 2006, there were 334 applications 33

National Forest Policy as Platform for Biosphere Carbon Management

by communities in the Ministry of Forests and Fauna (MINFOF). Of the 334 applications, 90 community forests were under full community management. This means that the number more than quadrupled from 17 in December 2001. At this rate, total area under community forestry could attain 1 million hectares in five years (i.e. 200 community forests at a maximum of 5000ha). However, a good number of the community forests are being hijacked by financially lucrative deals from timber exploiters –about 44% of all community forests by December 2003 (MINEF, 2003 pg 69 - 73). This runs contrary to the sustainable management objectives that justified the introduction of community forestry. Carbon forestry might provide a lucrative alternative or at least some competition with timber exploitation in this sector. A disadvantage of choosing community forestry is that a large part of community forests in Cameroon practice forest management (Sonwa et al., 2001), which is not currently eligible for CDM. Relatively fewer community forests practice afforestation or reforestation, currently eligible for the CDM. However, we think those prospects of and pressure for forest management coming into the Kyoto Protocol framework (post 2012) and the potential of the non-compliant or voluntary carbon market is good, thereby justifying this study.

2.3.2

Main Features of Community Forestry in Cameroon

Community Forest is defined as “that part of non-permanent forest estate (not more than 5000ha) that is the object of an agreement between government and a community in which communities undertake sustainable forest management for a period of 25 years renewable” (MINEF, 1998). Government approves a community forest application and signs a management agreement upon community fulfilment of the following requirements: •

The community has constituted a legal entity and appointed a community forest manager who shall represent them in negotiations with government in matters of community forestry;

•

The community has delineated and mapped the intended community forest area;

•

The community has completed an 8-10% inventory of the timber, nontimber forest products, and wildlife of the forest;

•

The community has provided a description of previous activities carried out in the intended forest area;

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•

The community presents a simple management plan for the intended forest; and

•

The community shows proof of stakeholder agreement on the intentions of forest management.

Once the management agreement is signed, policy requirements are as follows, •

That 100 % inventories are carried out in the compartments prior to the commencement of activities;

•

The management of community forests provide annual activity plans for approval;

•

The management of community forests provide annual reports to government; and

•

The community forest management plans are reviewed every five years.

2.3.3

Forest Institutions in Community Forestry

At the national level, forest policy development and implementation is steered by the Ministry of Forests and Fauna (MINFOF) - known until 2004 as the Ministry of Environment and Forests. Its role includes coordination with other ministries such as Economy and Finance on forest revenue issues and Higher Education and Scientific Research on training and research through universities and the Research Institute for Agriculture and Development (IRAD). In terms of ground implementation, the ministry has offices at the provincial, divisional and sub-divisional levels. A government agency called L’Agence Nationale D’Appui au Développement Forestier- ANAFOR (known until June 2002 as ONADEF) handles technical issues such as inventories and silviculture. The advent of community forestry in 1994 prompted the creation of a special community forestry unit now known as the Sub-Directorate for Community Forestry in the Ministry of Forests and Fauna (MINFOF). It handles the community forestry attribution process as prescribed in the Manual of Procedures and Norms for the Management of Community Forests (MINEF, 1998). At the local level communities must constitute legal entities representative of all concerned sections of the community in order to manage a community forest. According to Article 28 (1, 3) of the 1995 Decree, communities can constitute themselves into one of the following legal entities: an association, a cooperative, a common initiative group or an economic interest group. 35

National Forest Policy as Platform for Biosphere Carbon Management

The 1994 law created a Special Forestry Development Fund, a national instrument for the promotion and development of forest resources management. An inter-ministerial committee chaired by the Minister of Forests and Fauna manages the fund. A decree signed in April 1996 (No. 96-237-PM of 10 April 1996) specified the modalities for its functioning. Essentially it mobilises a proportion of current forest revenue and redeploys such funds into special forestry projects. Armed with the provisions of the CDM and related policy instruments, we move on to analyse the extent to which community forestry policy in Cameroon meets these demands.

2.4

Methods

This study aims at assessing forest policy compatibility to CDM requirements as a platform for proactive biosphere carbon management, using community forestry policy in Cameroon as a host country case. The main data sources in this study include: policy documents (laws, decrees, Conference of Parties /Meetings of Parties Decisions, technical reports from various institutions etc); existing commentary or analytical literature on policy and policy implementation; and interviews with key informants- when specific information was required. Content analysis was employed on the data in the extraction and organisation of information from various sources. This entailed coding according to the various criteria and assessment questions in the policy assessment framework in table 2.1. The assessment of policy is mainly based on the framework elaborated in section 2.2.2. However, we have chosen to introduce policy analysis theory in order to accommodate a more nuanced view of multi-actor policy processes that might not be apparent from a more pros and con “quasi-objective” argument with the use of the framework alone. A rather limited version of Contextual Interaction Theory (Bressers, 2004) is thus used. Its principles of motivation, power and information are used to complement the arguments for each of the questions in the forest policy-CDM compatibility framework.

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2.4.1

Contextual Interaction Theory - CIT

Contextual Interaction Theory explains the process of implementation of policy instruments and attempts to predict whether in a given case there will be any implementation at all, and under what conditions adequate implementation will occur. It can also be used to determine the degree of adequacy of the implementation of policy with respect to “targets”. Contextual Interaction Theory is based on the assumption that the course and outcomes of policy implementation depend not only on the characteristics of the policy instruments (inputs) but more importantly on the characteristics of the actors and interactions involved, especially the motivation (perception and interpretation of instrument, values, preferences and incentives), power (the relative ability of actors to influence policy as determined by bargaining strength and resources) and information (availability, access and control) (Bressers 2004; Bressers and O’Toole, 2005). The interaction of these three variables of motivation, power and information results in a prediction of the policy implementation process. The predictive model depicts possible interactions for implementation of the various instruments including cooperation (active, passive and forced), opposition and joint learning. Cooperation is supposed to be active when actors share a common goal among other things, “passive” when one or both parties adopt a very passive stance, which neither hinders nor stimulates the policy application and “forced” when a powerful actor imposes cooperation. Opposition is assumed to be when one or more actors try to prevent policy instrument application, and joint learning, is when only lack of information stands in the way of instrument implementation. These criteria have been applied in the assessment of different policy instruments, to give a more nuanced appraisal of the likelihood of success.

2.5

Assessing Community Forestry Compatibility to CDM.

This section analyses the potential of forest policy to support or inhibit the implementation of CDM forestry requirements in Cameroon. We analyse relevant policy instruments in relation to the requirements and compatibility assessment questions in the framework laid out in sections 2.2.2 and Table 2.1i.e. institutions, eligibility, additionality, acceptability, externalities and certification.

2.5.1

Institutions

Definition of a Designated National Authority (DNA): Cameroon’s Designated National Authority- DNA is called the “Comité National MDP Cameroun”. Created in January 2006 by Ministerial Decision No. 00008/MINEP/CAB, it is a 37

National Forest Policy as Platform for Biosphere Carbon Management

12 member Inter-Ministerial Committee with representatives from six ministries namely Environment and Nature Protection, Economy and Finance, Forests and Fauna, Energy, Industry and Commerce; one representative each from NGOs, the association of Cameroonian entrepreneurs, and the industrial union. The Director of Sustainable Development and Environmental Planning in the Ministry of Environment and Nature Protection is President of the DNA, while the Climate Change Focal Point is the Secretary and Secretariat. It is early days yet to judge the performance of the Comité National MDP Cameroun given that it has only been functioning for a few months. However, Inter-Ministerial committees often face coordination challenges and the problem of impermanence of personnel. In Cameroon personnel change very often, hence the motivation and experience could be lost. These sorts of problems have been experienced in Morocco and Indonesia (Michealowa, 2003). Article 3 (2) of the Decision creating the DNA stipulates that representatives of institutions on the DNA cannot be switched without the consent of the head of the DNA. But this falls short of imposing a term for persons serving on the DNA, neither does it allow for change overtime during which new members can learn from outgoing members. Moreover, such a commission can only operate at the strategic level, the actual registration and follow up issues will have to be addressed by a permanent and specialised unit. Current role of Institutions in CDM project Development: The DNA has been conducting training workshops on project design and facilitating the development of energy projects since its creation through a project called “Using carbon finance to promote sustainable energy service in Africa” involving the Community Development Carbon Fund of the World Bank, UNEP Riso Centre, ECONOLIER International (a Canadian consulting firm) and local NGOs. About 10 energy projects are in the early stages of PIN or PDD development. But little has been done relating to promoting CDM forestry projects in Cameroon. As was the case with forestry reform, there is a developing partnership between bilateral aid institutions and NGOs in the subsector. Much of the little groundwork on forestry has been done by NGOs and projects have been more concerned with feasibility studies. One such organisation is the Cameroon Mountain Forest Conservation Foundation (CAMCOF). It commissioned a study to evaluate the potential for a carbon programme in the Cameroon Mountains region in 2001 (EcoSecurities, 2002). Modelling results showed that most carbon sequestration could only be done through regrowth and conservation of natural forest on about 4300ha or 2.5% of the forest area. Regrowth and conservation are not eligible under the first commitment period CDM rules. This suggests that forest policy must be proactive and look at the opportunities that exist in the non-compliance market or concepts of reduced emissions through deforestation and degradation in post 2012 carbon policy scenarios. There exists under-recognised data in the project

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areas that could facilitate baseline and carbon additionality analysis. The TREMA database of the Mount Cameroon catchment area consists of georeferenced forest inventory database with 20000 data records from approximately 300 forest samples. It has built in functions to derive indices of “bioquality” and can be easily modified using additional field information and regression equations to serve carbon management purposes (EcoSecurities, 2002). Research by the World AgroForestry Centre (ICRAF) on carbon dynamics in a chronosequence of slash-and-burn agriculture in the humid forest zone of Southern Cameroon could be useful for national policy development (KottoSame et al, 1997). An example for use of this sort of data would be for further refinement of local standard baselines for small scale projects as expressed in Decision 14/CP.10. More has to be done by NGOs and government in terms of sensitization and institutional capacity building for project uptake and implementation. It suffices to mention that the Cameroon Mountain Conservation Foundation has been using British aid funds in these carbon studies. NGOs and bilateral and multilateral projects have also used overseas development assistance funds to support community forestry projects in Cameroon. MINEF (2003) reckons that 40% of community forests in Cameroon have been developed through overseas development finances. Projects developed using overseas development finance are not eligible for CDM projects under the financial additionality criterion. This could be a problem.

2.5.2

Eligibility

Country Definition of Forest: Cameroon is yet to define and communicate a definition of forest to the CDM Executive Board. Section 2 of the 1994 forestry law (No. 94-1 of 20 January 1994) defines a forest as, “any land covered by vegetation with a predominance of trees, shrubs and other species capable of providing products other than agricultural produce”.

It does not mention any of the parameters of crown cover, tree height and minimum land area as requested by the CDM. The current legal definition would not be acceptable. The requirement of choosing single values each for crown cover (between 10 and 30%), tree height (between 2.5 and 5m) and minimum land area (between 0.05 and 1ha) will be problematic for Cameroon. The country is comprised of six agro-ecological zones ranging from humid tropical forests in the south through savannah type vegetations in the middle to sahelian type vegetation in the

39

National Forest Policy as Platform for Biosphere Carbon Management

north. Choosing a higher threshold value of 30% crown cover is likely to exclude most of the 60% comprising highland savannah forests and tropical rainforests, yet 30% is the best option to maximise land eligibility under current CDM rules. Verschot et al., (2005) showed that between 70 and 90 percent of all lands in Bolivia, Uganda, and Ecuador were not eligible for CDM projects at a low crown cover threshold of 10 percent. While only 28 percent of land in Kenya was excluded at the same crown cover threshold value, mainly because a larger proportion of its lands are dry lands. EarthTrends Country Data (WRI, 2003) estimates that about 37 182 000 ha of land in Cameroon in the year 2000 was above 25 percent crown cover. Granted that total forest are in Cameroon is estimated at 21 245 000 ha, we can conclude that most community forests areas and indeed current forest areas are unlikely to be eligible for CDM if a crown cover threshold value of less than 25% is chosen. The forest definition issue requires careful data analysis of the carbon sequestration potential of various agro-ecological regions in the country, as well as comparative cost implications for various threshold crown cover values (Neeff et al., 2006). These data are not available at the moment. Completing such a study might help reach a decision at the national level, but questions of resource availability for such studies remain open. An alternative could be to orientate policy towards non-compliance mechanisms or post 2012 CDM scenarios that might introduce more favourable eligibility criteria. Definition of a low-income community or individual: No definition has been discussed within national policy in Cameroon. However, given that rural populations in Cameroon generally live on less than a dollar a day, it is probable that most communities would qualify for small-scale CDM.

2.5.3

Additionality

Land Tenure and Resource Rights Implementation: Land tenure in Cameroon is characterised by multiple layers of rules namely, the 1974 land ordinances, the Indicative Land Use Framework or Plan de zonage and local cultural and traditional land tenure systems. Following the 1974 Land ordinances, all uninhabited forestland without statutory titles, belong to the state. As a result this land has been conceptualised under the generic notion of “collective ownership” (Chi, 1999; Fisiy, 1997). The plan de zonage further categories land into permanent and non-permanent forests as in Table 2.2. A main weakness of this instrument is that only about 30% of the country (about 14 million ha) has been zoned through this scheme.

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The plan de zonage is negotiable on the ground (Articles 1 (2) and 6 (2) of Decree No. 95-678-PM of December 18) during regional land allotment planning or boundary delineation for various forest types, but institutional capacity for facilitating such processes are weak and very few experiences of the sort exist (Lescuyer et al., 2001). All areas not designated as permanent forest in the plan de zonage or by other decrees are subject to local traditional regimes of land rights. This allows for considerable overlap in rights and entitlements. In the local traditional regimes, chiefs have political and ritual powers and claim some kind of sovereignty over the land in the non-permanent forest estate. Traditionally effective ownership and administration comes in one of three ways: • • •

Firstly, by virtue of first occupation for original family lineages; Secondly, by community members by birth, marriage or co-optation following local access practice through family lineage, elders or traditional councils; and Thirdly strangers or non-natives can pay tribute to the rulers to be granted usufruct.

It is common for unscrupulous strangers to interpret the ownership of the state as permission to access the area without approval from local level. This duality between national and local levels and overlaps would pose serious barriers and risks to carbon project development and management. Furthermore, there could still be a problem of entitlements to carbon benefits due to regulatory weakness relating to the definition of rights to forest products. Section 9 (1-2) of the 1994 Forestry law defines forest products as comprising: “Mainly wood and non-wood products as well as wildlife and fishery resources derived from the forest. Certain forest products such as ebony, ivory, wild animal horns, as well as certain animal, plant and medicinal species or those, which are of interest, shall be classified as special. The list of special products shall be fixed, as and when necessary, by the competent ministry” (Section 9 (12))

The discretionary power of the minister may also allow the inclusion of carbon services into the special products list. If this happens within CDM projects and indeed community forests, then communities are doomed because they do not have the right to sue government in a court of law in matters regarding community forests (Vabi et al., 2000). More so, in the case of community forests, the minister reserves the right to terminate the management contract with communities in cases where they do not respect the management plan. Should one or both scenarios occur, there will be no certainty, and as a corollary, no incentive for carbon investments. What becomes of ongoing certified emission 41

National Forest Policy as Platform for Biosphere Carbon Management

reduction if and when a contract is terminated? Such issues must be clarified if CDM projects are to function smoothly in Cameroon. While information on land tenure and forest resource entitlements is largely known to actors, excessive discretionary power of MINFOF and lack of clarity on forest service earnings is likely to be an obstruction to CDM implementation. Forest resource risk management: Fires remain a major cause of forest destruction in Cameroon, hence a great policy challenge to government. Communities use fire as a technique for clearing in subsistence agricultural land preparation, for enabling fresh grass growth for cattle and to a limited extent, hunting in montane forests. Communities also recognize the destructive capacity of fire for their crops and forests in many places. As a result, there are fire management policies both at the level of government and within communities. Article 6-8 of Decree No. 95-531-PM allows for local ministry of forestry staff to determine modalities for safe and controlled fires. The same articles empower local government administrators in the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation to issue permits to start fires after consultation with the local forestry staff. But they very often issue permits without consulting forestry staff. Joint MINFOF-Community fire prevention and monitoring committees are supposed to be set up at local level but they have hardly been effective because MINFOF is highly understaffed. For example, the ratio of MINFOF staff to forest area in the South West Province is around 1:15 000ha. Gardener et al., (2001), report more successful fire fighting control techniques within community forestry in the Kilum-Ijim forest area in the northwest province of the country. These communities are using regular fire tracing, sensitization and patrols to successfully reduce fire occurrence and destruction of forests, grazing land and farms in the area. This dichotomy in forest fire management capacity has implications for potential carbon forestry projects. Permanent forest estates under government control may suffer while community forestry areas under carbon forestry may benefit if these lessons are multiplied and community capacity enhanced. Failures in fire prevention may dent investor confidence in carbon forestry in the country.

2.5.4

Acceptability

Sustainable Development Criteria: Sustainable development criteria for CDM projects assessment in Cameroon have been defined in Annex 1 of Decision 00008 / MINEP /CAB, but are yet to be tested on any carbon forestry projects. It consists of 11 criteria that together have 26 indicators. The criteria are

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grouped as follows 5 social criteria (equity and poverty reduction, relevance to national and local development, relevance to national and local sustainable development policy, well-being of local community, and social integrity of the local community); 3 economic and technological criteria (contribution to local economic viability, contribution to national economic viability, and technology transfer); and 3 environmental criteria (fight against climate change, preservation of the environment and natural resources and security and health. The actual scoring of the 26 indicators is done by a set of questions to which a binary response of yes or no is required. Further analysis revealed that the indicators were not tight enough and redundant in some cases. There is no specification of the evidence required for various criteria, neither is there any threshold specification as to when a project can be considered acceptable. This leaves a potentially high degree of subjectivity in the assessments when compared to multi-criteria methods used by Egypt, or the scoring approach in the SouthSouthNorth matrix tool or the Gold Standard (Olhoff et al., 2004; SSN, 2003; Sutter, 2003). Examples of redundancy in indicators and sub-indicators can be found in the criteria. The Indicator “increase or creation of employment” occurs twice for criterion 1 and also for criteria 4 and 6. A review of these criteria and indicator set would be necessary to make them tighter and beneficial for the country. The challenges of ensuring that projects approved using these criteria actually contribute to sustainable development cannot be ignored. Experience from community forestry provides some evidence in this regard. The community forestry manual of procedures introduced a number of requirements that could also be seen as enhancing sustainable forest management. Communities were required to carry out inventories and produce simple management plans, develop and show a benefit- sharing mechanism for proceeds that will come from the community forest, and demonstrate that all involved had participated in the decision-making during the planning process. In addition, annual exploitation plans are not expected to go beyond forest productivity rates. To date all community forests approved have fulfilled these conditions, but a number of shortcomings have appeared. Firstly, an evaluation report at the end of 2003 showed that 80% of these communities were not respecting the management plan (MINEF, 2003). Many communities have exploited timber beyond the recommended volumes because community forests are more attractive to timber exploiters. Timber exploiters find community forests cheaper and easier to work with. In addition, some villagers encourage and cooperate with illegal loggers for personal financial benefits (Brunner and Ekoko, 2000; Fomete, 2001).

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National Forest Policy as Platform for Biosphere Carbon Management

Carbon funds could present greater benefits within the simplified procedures for small-scale CDM projects. It could enable carbon forestry projects to compete with and / or edge out sale of standing volumes and illegal logging, thereby contributing to sustainable development. Regulations on Potentially Invasive Species and Genetically Modified Organisms: The CDM presumes that host countries have laws that enable them to assess the risks of projects that use potentially invasive species and genetically modified organisms. In Cameroon reference to both invasive species and genetically modified organisms is very indirect. Article 16 of the August 1995 Decree states as follows: “The conditions for organizing the prevention and control of diseases and insects threatening forest plantations and species shall be determined by order of the Minister in charge of forestry”.

Such an order is still awaited. Although this is not a condition that can justify the non-registration of a project, it is in the interest of host countries to define such policies for the benefit of sustainable ecosystems management as a whole.

2.5.5

Externality- Impacts assessments

National approval has to take project impact analysis into account. This means that policy must be available to guide the appraisal and evaluation process. Article 110 (1) of the August 1995 Decree states the following with regards to impact assessments: “Within the context of a development plan likely to disturb or destroy a forest, a preliminary impact study on the environment shall be carried out by the applicant, according to the rules laid down by the department in charge of the environment, in order to determine what special steps should be taken to ensure the conservation, management or as the case may be, salvage of natural resources” (Article 110 (1) August 1995 Decree).

The rules required for such impact studies are yet to be determined. However, a Department of Norms was created in the Ministry of Environment alongside the Secretariat for Environment in 1999 to establish all environmental and forestry related norms demanded by the 1994 law. But nothing has been published in this regard. Any Designated National Authority for CDM could work with this government department to establish the impact assessment conditions required. Despite the weak institutional and regulatory framework in this regard, two initiatives have been carried out in the country initiated by external funding bodies: the Mokong dam project in the North province (IUCN) and the Chad Cameroon Pipeline Project (Bitondo, 2000). Guidelines of donor institutions were used viz. the World Bank Operational Directives on environmental assessment - OP 4.01 and the Operational Policy on Economic Evaluation of 44

Chapter 2

projects -OP 10.04 (Dames and Moore, 1997). The government of Cameroon put the Mokong Dam project on hold as a result of the environmental assessment (Bitondo, 2000). The motivation of civil society in both cases enabled the adaptation of international frameworks / criteria to local settings with some success. The fact that government recognised the results of both studies indicates that they could be acceptable if used for CDM project impact assessments.

2.5.6

Certification - Project review and approval procedures

The project review and approval procedures for CDM projects in Cameroon, presented in figure 2.1, were defined in annex 2 of Ministerial Decision No. 0008/MINEP/CAB of January 2006. The secretariat of the DNA serves as a onestop shop for project review and approval. The members of the Comité National MDP Cameroun (the DNA) do the project reviews. However, the DNA can coopt any competent persons or institutions it needs to fulfil its tasks. The procedure has only been operational for a few months; hence it is early days for an evaluation. Some ten energy projects are currently navigating the review process but are still at very early stages and no forestry projects have yet been initiated. The dynamics of forestry projects will be different and more complicated, therefore more challenging. It was found that current procedures do not give sufficient attention to land and forest rights issues, unlike the Indonesian procedures for example (see chapter 2.5.6). In the Indonesian case some power for evaluating and approving land ownership and forest entitlements has been given to local authorities (Masripatin, 2005), which could be just as prudent and efficient in the case of Cameroon where land right regimes vary enormously (Fisiy, 1997; Chi, 1999). Moreover, if this is done within community forests, fewer problems are expected as the community forestry procedures have built in mechanisms to minimize these problems. The only experience of project appraisal and approval in the forestry sector that the DNA could learn from is the case of community forestry. The SubDirectorate of community forestry in the Ministry of Forests has reviewed over 300 community forestry applications so far. Its reviews are based on prescriptions laid out in the Manual of Procedures and Norms for the Management of community forests (MINEF, 1998). An outline of these requirements was presented in section 2.3.2. The Ministry must make a decision within six months of receipt of the application. If communities do not receive a letter rejecting their application with justification, they can assume it has been granted, and therefore continue

45

National Forest Policy as Platform for Biosphere Carbon Management

with the development of the management plan. If rejected, they could correct the application based on the recommendations of the Minister and re-submit. A second strong point of the approval process is that it provides for consultation and crosschecking with all government departments at the local level.

Project Idea Note (PIN) Received

First Evaluation (Based on PIN) Time frame: 2 weeks maximum

Rejected PIN to be resubmitted

PIN Accepted Issuance of letter indicating absence of objections

Rejected PDD to be resubmitted

Source: Government of Cameroon

Second Evaluation (Based on Project Design DocumentPDD) Time frame: 4 weeks Maximum

Issuance of Approval Letter by the DNA

Figure 2.1 CDM project review and approval procedure in Cameroon There have been some problems with the requirements for approval. These include chiefly complaints of the process being costly and some requirements simply redundant. For example, communities produce GIS based boundary maps that are up-to-date in terms of land use at scale 1:50 000, and are required to certify them at the Institut National de Geographie. There, technicians use points from the community map to hand-trace new boundaries on topographic sheets of 1975 for which they issue an attestation of surface area. As a result communities spend money to get final a product that is less accurate than their initial map (McCall and Minang, 2005). Such problems have led to the revision 46

Chapter 2

of the manual of procedures. The Ministry of Forests is preparing a new version. The experiences of this process could help the DNA gauge what will be workable for CDM forestry.

2.6

Discussion

The previous section examined the potential of policy instruments to support or inhibit the implementation of CDM requirements by attempting to answer a number of key questions of national forestry policy, and Table 2.3 summarises the analysis. Salient constraining factors and supportive policy dimensions for carbon forestry project development are highlighted and discussed in the text that follows.

2.6.1

Constraining factors which limit the potential

Firstly, a number of regulatory issues need to be addressed to facilitate biosphere carbon project management. These include: specifying the definition of forest and low-income communities and individuals for small-scale project eligibility; impact assessment rules, and policy on genetically modified organisms and invasive species within forestry. These regulatory requirements are an absolute necessity in the CDM modalities (Decisions19/CP.9 and 14/CP.10). In addition, a number of regulatory measures that could help promote carbon forestry are required in the case of Cameroon. Clarification will be required on rights of ownership and access to earnings from forest services. Current policy provisions refer only to product ownership and access, and they also allow excessive discretionary power to forest administration and political appointees to withdraw rights of ownership. Clarification about ownership and entitlements to earnings from forest services including carbon will provide an incentive for carbon project development and could help reduce risk of project failure and conflicts. Smith and Scherr (2003) argue that securing forest access and ownership rights for local people and establishing forest carbon rights are national policy actions needed to enhance CDM project development. Multi-layered land tenure policy arrangements in Cameroon could inhibit carbon forestry development. The current proposed land use framework (plan de zonage) gives room for negotiation at the local level, but the lack of technical capacity and resources has hampered its implementation. Leaving room for conflict with local tenure arrangements. Conflicts of this nature will endanger the success of carbon forestry projects. FERN (2000) point to the role of land conflicts in carbon project failure in East Africa. Encouraging an integrated land use planning approach could help mitigate the problem while enabling the achievement of sustainable development and leakage avoidance. 47

National Forest Policy as Platform for Biosphere Carbon Management

Table 2.3 The likelihood of policy instrument application for CDM criteria in Cameroon under CIT

48

Chapter 2

Lastly, procedures for the acquisition of community forests must be simplified and meaningful support provided by policy implementation to curb the illegal logging induced by changes in financial and regulatory instruments in the 1994 law. This argument lends support to the ongoing revision of the manual of procedures and norms for community forest management. Understanding the various indications of motivation, power and information of actors as they affect the above-mentioned constraining factors is relevant (see table 2.3). Perhaps a national strategy study in the nature of what preceded policy development in Indonesia, India or Morocco is also needed to understand the details of these issues.

2.6.2

Supportive Policy Dimensions / Opportunities

A number of opportunities for enhancing biosphere carbon sequestration exist in current policy including: the potential to fund capacity building activities through the national Special Forestry Development Fund; learning from the current regulatory framework for community forestry approval; and taking advantage of the current interest and capacity of Non-Governmental Organisations. Government resources are in short supply and few opportunities exist for communities to obtain funds to develop projects. When overseas development assistance has funded the development of community forests this may render projects ineligible for the CDM under the financial additionality requirement. This means other funds are needed for capacity building and for start-up investments in communities. The Special Forestry Development Fund provides an own funding opportunity. This is a fund in the Ministry of Forests and Fauna that allows for percentage of forestry taxes to be reinvested into forestry development. Subak (2000) demonstrated that Costa Rica’s own funding from hydrocarbon taxes was instrumental in developing the carbon forestry programme. Current community forestry project approval regulations provide a good point of departure for CDM project approval procedure. They address and handle participation, planning, tenure, and conflict issues with some success (Brown et al., 2001), enabling some kind of good governance dimension to forest management in Cameroon (Brown et al., 2003). Over time, communities have gained experience with forest inventories, management plan development, monitoring and other relevant management mechanisms. These experiences further boost the potential for terrestrial carbon management within community forests. Carbon funds can provide the strong competition needed to stem the invasion of community forests by timber companies.

49

National Forest Policy as Platform for Biosphere Carbon Management

Better involvement of NGOs could help enhance carbon project uptake and implementation in Cameroon. Besides the initial interest seen from the Cameroon Mountain Conservation Foundation and the World Agroforestry Centre in carbon forestry studies in Cameroon, NGOs in the country have made remarkable contributions in terms of promoting sustainable forestry and forest policy (Ekoko, 2000). Table 2.3 also indicates a strong likelihood for implementation with NGO involvement given better resources; lobby strength, information, motivation, and the confidence the population have in them. Michealowa (2003) shows the very important role NGOs played in the development of relevant CDM policy in Indonesia and India. Institutional synergy and cooperation at multiple levels involving multiple actors enabled the development of carbon forestry in countries such as Costa Rica and Mexico (Subak, 2000; Nelson and de Jong, 2003). Specific policy attention must be given to institutional development. In all, this study provides evidence that if national policy is to support CDM project development it must be addressed in a holistic manner, thus confirming the following IPCC report statement “The public policy environment for agriculture, forestry, and industrial sectors varies across countries and may facilitate or inhibit the penetration rate of LULUCF projects. Such policies could address tax incentives, or subsidies for afforestation, reforestation or deforestation; land conversion to agriculture or alternative agricultural practices; land tenure; agrarian reform; and sustainable development more generally …” (IPCC, 2000 pg 303).

2.7

Conclusion

This paper set out to examine the compatibility between forest policy provisions in Cameroon and the CDM/Kyoto Protocol framework. It examined the relevant national policy questions within CDM project requirements, and then analysed specific constraining factors and opportunities for CDM forestry project development within community forestry policy. Based on the foregoing analysis, we conclude that national policy in Cameroon needs to address the following to enable the uptake, development and smooth implementation of CDM projects. It must specify the following: • • • •

50

A definition of forest; National impact assessment criteria and procedures; Criteria for low-income individuals or communities to qualify for smallscale CDM projects; and Genetically modified organisms and invasive species policy guidelines for project assessment.

Chapter 2

Given that current eligibility criteria do not offer easy opportunities to maximise carbon sequestration potential for biosphere carbon management, it must recognise the need for the adoption of pro-active policy action. This would mean a holistic approach in which it must do the following: clarify ownership and entitlements to earnings from LULUCF services; facilitate review and approval procedures for forest types; enhance integrated land use planning within forest types to reduce conflicts and the potentials for leakage; and generate own start-up funds for policy development. Enhancing cooperation between NGOs, government agencies and research institutions will be vital for providing project level support and capacity building on complex novel issues such as additionality, leakage and development impact amongst others. Government could also consider facilitating the development of a national carbon market mechanism that would organise producers and link with the international carbon market. These measures would help national policy look beyond the current CDM rules and into the non-compliance market and post 2012 Kyoto scenarios in a bid to maximise options. At the global level, the CDM /Kyoto framework needs to explore possibilities of setting-up mechanisms for supporting proactive biosphere carbon management policies in non-annex 1 countries at national level as well as in project development at the community level in order to enhance carbon forestry project adoption. This could be under the current rules or within ongoing negotiations on the carbon forestry rules beyond 2012. In addition, the findings of this study also support the current considerations for reduced emissions through deforestation and degradation within the Kyoto Protocol process (post 2012). This is due to the fact that conservation activities that avoid emissions through deforestation in humid tropical countries like Cameroon are not eligible for the CDM even though deforestation causes about 25 % of global emissions. One of the widely supported post 2012 ideas is the concept of “compensated reduction”. “Compensated Reduction” suggests a mechanism in which countries that elect to reduce national level deforestation to below 1980-1990 level would receive post facto compensation, whilst they commit to stabilise or further reduce deforestation in the future (Santili et al., 2005). Such a proposition offers better opportunities for forest management in the humid tropics like Cameroon. But it might mean that national governments take responsibility for meeting the reduction targets through a sectoral approach once they elect to participate in the compensated reduction scheme. The implications could be greater challenges for proactive forestry policy development and implementation especially because the rules are still being crafted. Hence, further research and learning will be needed.

51

National Forest Policy as Platform for Biosphere Carbon Management

52

Chapter 3 A data support infrastructure for Clean Development Mechanism forestry implementation: an inventory perspective from Cameroon∗

∗

Published as:

Minang, P. A., McCall, M. K., Skutsch, M. M., Verplanke, J. J., (2007) A data support infrastructure for Clean Development Mechanism forestry implementation: an inventory perspective from Cameroon. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change (In Press). DOI 10.1007/s11027-007-9084-7. Online first on 23 February.

53

CDM Forestry Data Support Infrastructure in Cameroon

Abstract Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) forestry project development requires highly multi-disciplinary and multiple-source information that can be complex, cumbersome and costly to acquire. Yet developing countries in which CDM projects are created and implemented are often data poor environments and unable to meet such complex information requirements. Using Cameroon as an example, the present paper explores the structure of an enabling host country data support infrastructure for CDM forestry implementation, and also assesses the supply potential of current forestry information. Results include a conceptual data model of CDM project data needs; the list of meso and macro level data and information requirements (Demand analysis); and an inventory of relevant data available in Cameroon (Supply analysis). From a comparison of demand and supply, we confirm that data availability and the relevant infrastructure for data or information generation is inadequate for supporting carbon forestry at the micro, meso and macro levels in Cameroon. The results suggest that current CDM afforestation and reforestation information demands are almost impenetrable for local communities in host countries and pose a number of cross-scale barriers to project adoption. More importantly, we identify proactive regulatory, institutional and capacity building policy strategies for forest data management improvements that could enhance biosphere carbon management uptake in poor countries. CDM forestry information research needs are also highlighted.

Keywords: Cameroon, Clean Development Mechanism, Data Infrastructure, and Land Use Land Use Change and Forestry, and Cameroon Chapter 1

54

Chapter 3

3.1

Introduction

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is one of the “flexible mechanisms” in the Kyoto Protocol designed to accomplish the objectives of the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change- (UNFCCC). CDM makes provision for investment by industrialised countries and industry in carbon emissions reduction and carbon sequestration projects in developing countries. These projects should contribute to sustainable development in developing countries (Non-Annex 1) while enabling developed countries (Annex 1) to meet emission limitation targets. One way in which sustainable development might be achieved could be through forestry projects, which are managed by and for rural communities, where they would contribute to local environmental values as well as income. Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry – (LULUCF) projects must meet certain conditions in order to acquire Certified Emission Reductions (CERs). CERs represent the emission reduction outputs of projects and constitute the basis on which payments are made. Projects must fulfil specific criteria in order to be issued CERs, including eligibility, additionality, and acceptability in terms of environmental and social impacts, sustainable development, and leakage. Fulfilment of these requirements implies the provision of reliable, documented and archived evidence demonstrating adherence to these criteria. A close examination of CDM information requirements reveal a fuzzy, highly multidisciplinary and multiple-source mix which can be very complex, cumbersome and costly to acquire (Pfaff et al., 2000). Yet developing countries in which these projects are created and implemented are known to be data poor environments in very many domains (Dalal-Clayton et al., 2003). Such data / information scarcity and unreliability in developing countries inhibit the abilities for community uptake and implementation of CDM forestry projects, thereby excluding poor communities from payments for environmental services and envisaged sustainable development benefits. More specifically, information scarcity could limit the scope for bottom-up estimates of carbon balance for forestry options (Conant and Paustian, 2004). Yet little attention has been given to enhancing host country and project level information management. The objectives of this paper are three fold. First, it explores and underlines the need for an enabling data infrastructure for terrestrial carbon mitigation projects. Secondly, it reviews land use and forestry information available at the micro, meso and macro levels in the context of community forestry in Cameroon, as an example of a potential CDM host country, and considers potential sources and ways of enhancing information management for CDM project uptake and management. Finally, it looks briefly at the new

55

CDM Forestry Data Support Infrastructure in Cameroon

developments as regards forest policy under UNFCCC Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, (REDD), and considers what implications this would have for the data infrastructure. Data / Information infrastructure is defined as the relevant base collection of technologies, policies and institutional arrangements that facilitate the availability of and access to data relevant for the implementation of the CDM. It could include a set of structured or semi-structured data collected and stored in a proprietary format (data collection) and also, a formalised set of properties that describe with significant amount of detail the characteristics of the contents of a data collection (metadata) (Morales, 2004). Such an infrastructure provides the basis for the discovery, evaluation and application of data and information, potentially enabling reduced data collection time and cost, duplication, and greater access. “Data” are those facts about the world which an organization or individual appreciates as being meaningful to their concern; while “information” is data which may have been processed, and that is appreciated as useful within a particular decision-making process (Lewis, 1994).

3.2

Methods and Context

3.2.1

Methods

This study borrows principally from information and planning science methods. We use Grounded Theory in the analysis of information systems as described in Urquhart, (2001) and Strauss and Corbin, (1990). The method utilises an analytic process by which concepts are identified and developed in terms of their properties. We categorized, coded, compared and related CDM information requirements from policy documents and commentary in literature. The result in this case is a conceptual data model in the form of an integrative diagram representing the CDM data needs (Demand analysis). Similar methods are employed to determine the availability of such relevant data in Cameroon (Supply analysis). To structure the analysis of the data supply infrastructure in a useful way, a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis (Weihrich 1982; van der Blonk, 2003) was made. In this instance, we categorised, coded, compared and related information from interview transcripts, field observation / office data inventory notes and secondary data. The results also include a set of possible strategies for data and information supply enhancement needed to enable CDM forestry project uptake and implementation. These methods are applied to two case studies of community forestry at the micro level and to government represented by the Ministry of Forests and Fauna at the regional (provincial) and the national level (meso and macro 56

Chapter 3

respectively). Given the very hierarchical and centralised nature of the government and governance in Cameroon, we have chosen to deal with both the meso and macro levels as one. The two communities studied at the micro level are Tinto and Bimbia Bonadikombo, in the southwest province of the country. Cameroon has not as yet submitted any community forestry projects under the CDM. The two case studies represent typical community forestry projects with typical levels of data availability, which could potentially be submitted as CDMs. These cases thus give a good idea of what sorts of data demands can be met at present, and what would further be required. Learning from their experiences with data for community forestry purposes sheds light on what the likely information management problems and opportunities would be for carbon forestry.

3.2.2

The Micro Level Study Context: Local Community Forest Initiatives

3.2.2.1 The Tinto Community The Tinto community consists of three neighbouring villages of the same clan namely Tinto Bessinghe, Tinto Kerieh and Tinto Mbu, in descending order of size. The total population is estimated at 1700 with less than 1% of the population being non-native. Tinto is rural but has the status of a sub-divisional (sub-district) headquarters. Inhabitants are mostly farmers, often combining farming with forest extraction activities. The community signed a management agreement with government on a 1295 ha evergreen humid forest in December 2002, after receiving some technical assistance and financial support from a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Living Earth Foundation. The Tinto Clan Community Forest Common Initiative Group and a forest manager run the forest on behalf of the community. Few activities written into the management plan have been implemented. Lack of funds, the remoteness of the community and leadership inadequacies have been advanced among the reasons for this inertia

3.2.2.2 The Bimbia Bonadikombo community The Bimbia Bonadikombo community is partly peri-urban in character and located on the fringes of the Limbe (Victoria) urban community. Limbe and the surrounding areas have a population of about 123,900 inhabitants. It is highly heterogeneous with few local people (of the Bakweri tribe), making the social and cultural environment intricate. It is a complex of many villages and several plantation worker camps. 57

CDM Forestry Data Support Infrastructure in Cameroon

The community has been managing a 3700 ha forest since mid 2002, with some technical support from the Mount Cameroon Project, which assisted particularly in preparing a forest inventory. The Bimbia Bonadikombo Natural Resource Management Council manages the forest. An executive board runs its activities while a forest manager is in charge of day-to-day management. There are 10 volunteers and three permanent staff working within this organisation. They get income mainly from access fees, fines from defaulters and auction sales.

3.2.3

The Macro and Meso Study Context (Forest/Land Use Administration)

The Ministry of Forests and Fauna steers forest policy implementation, including coordination with allied ministries. Based in the capital city, it has provincial and divisional delegations and sub-divisional forestry and wildlife posts in descending administrative order. A Directorate of Inventories holds major responsibility in information management within the ministry. This responsibility is shared with the Agence Nationale D’Appui au Développement Forestier (ANAFOR), a government agency that retains quasi-monopoly in technical services such as forest inventories, mapping and silvicultural services for the ministry. Within it is another sub-structure specialised in mapping and remote sensing known as Centre de Télédétection et de Cartographie Forestière (CETELCAF). The Système Informatique de Gestion des Informations Forestière (SIGIF) of CETELCAF constitutes the main computerised information system. All of these systems were set up without the CDM in mind. Forest administration services at the provincial, divisional and sub-divisional levels are basically involved in routine narrative reporting on the state of forests in their jurisdiction. Occasionally sketch/traced maps of concessions, protected areas and production forest areas are included in these reports. Inventories and management plans for these forest units constitute the main sources of detailed information on botany, forest characteristics and land use changes.

3.3

CDM forestry project data requirements (demand analysis)

This section gives an overview of the evidence (data and information) required of the CDM process for forestry projects. Figure 3.1 summarises the CDM project cycle. It shows the links between the project on the ground (micro level), the national level (macro) and the international institutions that verify and certify the projects. This implies information has to be carefully managed between the institutions in the right formats within the CDM process. However, we begin by briefly sketching the CDM forestry project requirements.

58

Chapter 3

Pre-Implementation

During Implementation

Feasibility Analysis Project Developer Project Design and Formulation * Project Developer

Project Design Document

National Approval Designated National Authority Approval Letter Validation and Registration Designated Operational Entity and CDM Executive Board / Registry Project Financing

Monitoring **

Investor

Project Developer Verification and Certification Modified from Figueres (2002)

Key:

Stage Main Actors

Main Outputs

Designated Operational Entity and CDM Executive Board

* - Estimates of variables

** - Actual data collection and

only

archiving

Figure 3.1 Clean Development Mechanism Project Cycle

3.3.1

CDM Forestry Requirements

CDM projects are expected to meet a set of requirements prior to the issuance of certified emission reductions. These requirements are articulated in the Kyoto Protocol and in subsequent decisions taken during various Conferences and Meetings of Parties (Decisions 19/CP.9 and 14/CP.10). These requirements can be summarised under the following categories: eligibility, additionality, acceptability, externalities and certification.

59

CDM Forestry Data Support Infrastructure in Cameroon

3.3.1.1 Eligibility Afforestation and Reforestation are the only forestry activities eligible under the current CDM rules during the first commitment period (2008-2012). Afforestation would mean planting trees on land that has not been forest for a period of at least 50 years (i.e. according to the host country definition of forest). Reforestation would mean planting trees on land that was not forest on 31 December 1989.

3.3.1.2 Additionality Sequestration or emission reductions due to the project activities must be “additional” to any that would occur in the absence of the project (Paragraphs 18-22 of Decision 19/CP.9). In other words, holding everything else constant, would a project have happened in the absence of the offset crediting system? If yes, then the project is not additional; if no, then the project is additional (Trexler et al., 2006).

3.3.1.3 Acceptability The Kyoto Protocol states that all carbon offset projects in developing countries are required to contribute to sustainable development (Article 2.1 and 12.2). Host countries have to set criteria for sustainable development by which projects will be judged.

3.3.1.4 Externalities (Environmental Impact and Leakage) Projects must demonstrate a clear strategy to deal with all socio-economic, cultural and environmental impacts that may arise from project implementation. Projects have to demonstrate how the negative impacts would be mitigated or countered. Project analysis must also show how they will address possible unplanned emissions that could occur outside project boundaries as a result of project activities (known as leakage).

3.3.1.5 Certification The concreteness, measurability and long-term characteristics of the project will have to be checked independently by a third-party (i.e. a Designated Operational Entity) accredited by the CDM executive board. This takes place in two stages namely validation and verification (see figure 3.1). These processes enable project registration, and the issuance of Certified Emissions Reductions, for offset credits respectively.

60

Chapter 3

3.3.2

Alternative Non-CDM Approaches

Current ideas under discussion by UNFCCC regarding post-2012 Kyoto Protocol implementation suggest that a national, sectoral approach to forestry might be adopted, such as the concept of “Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation- REDD” which proposes the introduction of natural forest management into the Kyoto options (Santili et al., 2005). The REDD idea suggests a mechanism in which countries that elect to reduce national level deforestation to below 1980-1990 level would receive post facto compensation, whilst they commit themselves to stabilise or further reduce deforestation in the future. This means national governments taking responsibility for meeting the reduction targets through a sectoral approach. The details as regards data requirements for this type of approach are not yet clear, since indeed the policy is only at the discussion stage, but it is clear that such an approach cannot be taken without rigorous planning and monitoring data; and since the approach is nation-wide rather than at project level, it is selfevident that an appropriate national information infrastructure will be needed as soon as a country elects to be part of this mechanism. The implications of this are taken up in chapter 3.5.2.2.

3.3.3

Micro-Level Information

Project developers have to provide verifiable evidence demonstrating adherence to all of the above-mentioned CDM rules in a Project Design Document (PDD). Appendix A of Decision 19/CP.9 specifies the content of the project design document for Afforestation and Reforestation projects, while appendix A of Decision 14/CP.10 details simplified procedures for “small-scale projects” – i.e. producing 200m.

121

Local spatial knowledge and CDM forest eligibility

5.4.5

Value-added of PGIS to local information

Table 5.2 summarises the value added to local knowledge for CDM land eligibility observed during this study. Table 5.10 Value added of PGIS use in Bimbia Bonadikombo Dimensions Relevance Verifiability

Representativeness

Effectiveness Form

Sharability

Accuracy Geometric

Value added by PGIS

PRA representation

Local Knowledge Characteristics

Made oral-historical data verifiable using other ‘scientific’ methods

Visually indicative but not comparable or scientifically acceptable / verifiable Diagrammatic visual representation only

Oral narratives

Introduced geographic representation where none existed before From oral to geometric scaled digital data Measurable (distances, areas) Possible digital storage, retrieval and sharing through digital media Improved using coordinates

Temporal

Not evident

Thematic

Not evident

122

Sketch maps not often drawn to scale Little or no measurements possible Mostly limited to physical transfer media (Paper / models) Limited to shapes and ground markers (symbols) Perhaps better in developing countries where no geographic data exists N/A

Previously unrecorded mental maps

Oral /mental map form Perceptual estimates of distance and area Limited to oral communication media

Mental markers, cognitive landmarks Goes back even longer in time than any technology

N/A

Chapter 5

Figure 5.7 a & b Land cover maps of 1980 and 1990

Figure 5.8 a & b Overlay of PGIS points and land cover for 1980 and 1990 123

Local spatial knowledge and CDM forest eligibility

5.5

Discussion

This study explores the potential of PGIS to complement the UNFCC recommended methods for providing evidence for land eligibility for CDM forestry projects; this is important because many developing countries are likely to find some of the requirements inaccessible. The first question addressed regards the extent to which PGIS evidence compares with that from remote sensing, principally satellite images. From visual interpretation, we observe a good fit between georeferenced PRA points of farm/forest boundaries of 1980 and 1990 (see figure 5.5a and b). The trajectories and directions of land use / forest change shown by the points match those indicated by the image classification. However, on a pixel-by-pixel basis, 51.6 % of the points were classified as farms or plantations. This is much lower than expected, as previous studies comparing local knowledge and scientific knowledge have shown stronger comparability and reliability. Examples include soil classification studies -see Barrera-Bassols, 2003; vegetation classification- e.g. Naidoo and Hill (2006); perceptions of biological value or importance – e.g. Brown et al. (2004); and resource trends- e.g. Hillier et al., (1999). It has to be noted that these studies were dealing with actual taxonomic issues as opposed to mental recall addressed in this study. Mental recall is unlikely to have been subjected to as much testing as local taxonomy of soils and vegetation and could well be affected by the mental state of the participants during the recall activities. However, 19.35 of the points not classified as farms or plantations were found to be